Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-1/3f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 1 3F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For the unit sphere, project from its north pole onto the equatorial plane, identified with the complex plane. The line through and meets the plane at the stereographic projectionThe north pole is omitted from the plane chart; adding its image infinity gives the Riemann sphere.
For a point whose image and antipodal image are finite, stereographic projection of gives . Thereforeusing . Conversely implies . Substituting this into the inverse stereographic projection changes the signs of all three coordinates, proving the converse. Thus finite chart images correspond to antipodes exactly when . On the extended chart the exceptional antipodal pair is , for which the displayed ordinary complex product is not defined.
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