On the use of penumbras in blocking and antiblocking theory

E. Johnson has recently shown that the concept of a penumbra leads to a simple geometric description of the blocker and antiblocker of a given set. Here we develop some basic results on penumbras which permit us to slightly generalize and simplify results on their relationship to blocking and antiblocking theory. In addition, motivated by the obvious symmetry of our results, we examine the effect of reversing the blocking and antiblocking operations.