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Point (geometry)

In geometry, a point is an abstract idealization of an exact position, without size, in physical space,[1] or its generalization to other kinds of mathematical spaces. As zero-dimensional objects, points are usually taken to be the fundamental indivisible elements comprising the space, of which one-dimensional curves, two-dimensional surfaces, and higher-dimensional objects consist; conversely, a point can be determined by the intersection of two curves or three surfaces, called a vertex or corner.

In classical Euclidean geometry, a point is a primitive notion, defined as "that which has no part". Points and other primitive notions are not defined in terms of other concepts, but only by certain formal properties, called axioms, that they must satisfy; for example, "there is exactly one straight line that passes through two distinct points". As physical diagrams, geometric figures are made with tools such as a compass, scriber, or pen, whose pointed tip can mark a small dot or prick a small hole representing a point, or can be drawn across a surface to represent a curve.


Since the advent of analytic geometry, points are often defined or represented in terms of numerical coordinates. In modern mathematics, a space of points is typically treated as a set, a point set.


An isolated point is an element of some subset of points which has some neighborhood containing no other points of the subset.

Geometry without points[edit]

Although the notion of a point is generally considered fundamental in mainstream geometry and topology, there are some systems that forgo it, e.g. noncommutative geometry and pointless topology. A "pointless" or "pointfree" space is defined not as a set, but via some structure (algebraic or logical respectively) which looks like a well-known function space on the set: an algebra of continuous functions or an algebra of sets respectively. More precisely, such structures generalize well-known spaces of functions in a way that the operation "take a value at this point" may not be defined.[6] A further tradition starts from some books of A. N. Whitehead in which the notion of region is assumed as a primitive together with the one of inclusion or connection.[7]

. PlanetMath.

"Point"

"Point". MathWorld.

Weisstein, Eric W.