Definition:Porism

The porism is a term whose precise definition is difficult to pin down.

It arises from the works of Euclid, and appears to have two different meanings:


 * 1) A result which follows directly, or in passing, during the course of proving something else; that is, a corollary.
 * 2) A proposition that asserts that there may be conditions under which a particular problem has either no solutions or an indeterminate number of them.

Linguistic Origin
It derives ultimately from the Greek $$\pi o \rho o \varsigma$$ (poros) meaning "a thing brought", or "a thing deduced".