File:Twisted_cubic_curve.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
algebraic variety
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mathematical object studied in the field of algebraic geometry
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The twisted cubic is a projective algebraic variety. It is the intersection of the surfaces y = x and z = x.
Algebraic varieties are the central objects of study in algebraic geometry, a sub-field of mathematics. Classically, an algebraic variety is defined as the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers. Modern definitions generalize this concept in several different ways, while attempting to preserve the geometric intuition behind the original definition.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “algebraic variety” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.