- #1
tomwilliam2
- 117
- 2
Homework Statement
My son's textbook says In a plane, given a line and a point not on it, at most one line parallel to the given line can be drawn through the point. He asked me why two lines couldn't be drawn on top of each other...to which I replied that they would have the same algebraic form and would therefore be considered the same line. I also think that if a line is the sum of all points, then there aren't two lines but one.
Later on in his book, though, it describes two forms of parallel lines: coincident lines and separate parallel lines. Is this just loose terminology - aren't coincident lines better described as just one line? It might seem a minor point, but I wasn't really able to explain it satisfactorily to him.