Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2003 / ib / Paper 1 / 4F / Solution

Use the Poincaré half-plane model, $\mathbb{H}=\{x+iy:y>0\}$ with metric $d{s}^2=(d{x}^2+d{y}^2)/y^2$. Its hyperbolic lines are vertical lines and semicircles centred on the real boundary, hence orthogonal to that boundary. Each has two ideal endpoints in $\mathbb{R}\cup \{\infty \}$. Distinct parallel hyperbolic lines are disjoint inside $\mathbb{H}$ and share one ideal endpoint; distinct ultraparallel hyperbolic lines are disjoint and share none. Intersecting lines are neither. Because the metric is conformal to the Euclidean metric, the two notions of angle agree.

Apply a hyperbolic isometry taking one line $l$ to the imaginary axis, whose ideal endpoints are $0,\infty$. If the other line $l^{\prime }$ is ultraparallel, its endpoints are two finite nonzero real numbers of the same sign. Reflect if necessary to write them as $0<a<b$. Then $l^{\prime }$ is the semicircle with centre $c=(a+b)/2$ and radius $r=(b-a)/2$.

Every hyperbolic line perpendicular to the imaginary axis must be a semicircle centred at zero: at the intersection its tangent has to be horizontal, forcing its real centre to coincide with zero. Let its radius be $R$. Orthogonality to the circle representing $l^{\prime }$ requires $c^2=R^2+r^2$, since the radii to the intersection form a right triangle. ConsequentlyThis has exactly one positive solution. The circles intersect above the real axis: $c-r=a<\sqrt{ab}<b=c+r$. Hence the required common perpendicular of ultraparallel hyperbolic lines exists and is unique.

Conversely, if $l^{\prime }$ intersects the imaginary axis, its endpoints straddle zero and the same equation would require $R^2=ab<0$, which is impossible. If $l^{\prime }$ has endpoint zero, it gives $R^2=0$, not a line. If its shared endpoint is infinity, $l^{\prime }$ is another vertical line; no circle centred at zero meets a distinct vertical line with horizontal tangent. Thus parallel lines have no common perpendicular either. These cases exhaust distinct lines, proving a unique common perpendicular exists exactly for ultraparallel lines.