Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-18/5/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 18 5 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Represent the smooth plane conic by , with an invertible symmetric matrix. The tangent line at has coefficients , because the differential is . Thus its image in the dual projective space satisfiesConversely any nonzero satisfying this equation gives , a point of the original smooth plane conic whose tangent is . This correspondence is the restriction of an invertible projective linear transformation. The dual conic is therefore the smooth conic
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