Cross-ratio - Terminology and History

Terminology and History

Pappus of Alexandria made implicit use of concepts equivalent to the cross-ratio in his Collection: Book VII. Early users of Pappus included Isaac Newton, Michel Chasles, and Robert Simson. In 1986 Alexander Jones made a translation of the original by Pappus, then wrote a commentary on how the lemmas of Pappus relate to modern terminology.

Modern use of the cross ratio in projective geometry began with Lazare Carnot in 1803 with his book Géométrie de Position. The term used was le rapport anharmonique (Fr: anharmonic ratio). German geometers call it das Doppelverhältnis (Ger: double ratio). However, in 1847 Karl von Staudt introduced the term Throw (Wurf) to avoid the metrical implication of a ratio. His construction of the Algebra of Throws provides an approach to numerical propositions, usually taken as axioms, but proven in projective geometry.

The English term "cross-ratio" was introduced in 1878 by William Kingdon Clifford.