Secant line point a "tangent line" and in no points an "exterior line". A "chord" of a circle is the line segment that joins two distinct points of the circle. A chord is therefore contained in a unique secant line and each secant line determines a unique chord. In rigorous modern treatments of plane geometry, results that seem obvious and were assumed (without statement) by Euclid in his treatment, are usually proved. For instance, "Theorem (Elementary Circular Continuity)": If formula_1 is a circle and formula_2 a line that contains a point that is inside formula_1 and a point that is outside of
Five points determine a conic zero points place no constraints on the 5-dimensional linear system of all conics. As is well known, three non-collinear points determine a circle in Euclidean geometry and two distinct points determine a pencil of circles such as the Apollonian circles. These results seem to run counter the general result since circles are special cases of conics. However, in a pappian projective plane a conic is a circle only if it passes through two specific points on the line at infinity, so a circle is determined by five non-collinear points, three in the affine plane and these two special points. Similar