Branch of mathematics that deals with the relationships between geometric figures and the images (mappings) of them that result from projection.
Examples of projections include motion pictures, maps of the Earth's surface, and shadows cast by objects. One stimulus for the subject's development was the need to understand perspective in drawing and painting. Every point of the projected object and the corresponding point of its image must lie on the projection ray, a line that passes through the centre of projection. Modern projective geometry emphasizes the mathematical properties (such as straightness of lines and points of intersection) preserved in projections despite the distortion of lengths, angles, and shapes.