Kummer configuration

In geometry, the Kummer configuration, named for Ernst Kummer, is a geometric configuration of 16 points and 16 planes such that each point lies on 6 of the planes and each plane contains 6 of the points. Further, every pair of points is incident with exactly two planes, and every two planes intersect in exactly two points. The configuration is therefore a biplane, specifically, a 2−(16,6,2) design. The 16 nodes and 16 tropes of a Kummer surface form a Kummer configuration. There are three different non-isomorphic ways to select 16 different 6-sets from 16 elements satisfying the above properties, that is, forming a biplane. The most symmetric of the three is the Kummer configuration, also called "the best biplane" on 16 points. Construction Following the method of Jordan (1869), but see also Assmus and Sardi (1981), arrange the 16 points (say the numbers 1 to 16) in a 4x4 grid. For each element in turn, take the 3 other points in the same row and the 3 other points in the same column, and combine them into a 6-set. This creates one 6-element block for each point.