Poncelet's closure theorem
Gran teorema de Poncelet
- Date
- 1746/1822 · confidence medium
- Place
- Metz, France
- Credited to
- Jean-Victor Poncelet
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
Poncelet's closure theorem (or porism) states that whenever a polygon is inscribed in one conic and circumscribes another, it belongs to an infinite family of polygons sharing that same property with the two conics. It was formulated by French engineer and mathematician Jean-Victor Poncelet in 1822, though the triangular case had already been found by William Chapple in 1746.
What it led to
- Founding result of projective geometry
- Later proofs using elliptic curves
- Influence on the development of algebraic geometry