2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/119363A quadratic point on a surface in $RP^3$ is a point at which the surface can be approximated by a quadric abnormally well (up to order 3). We conjecture that the least number of quadratic points on a generic compact non-degenerate hyperbolic surface is 8; the relation between this and the classic Carathéodory conjecture is similar to the relation between the six-vertex and the four-vertex theorems on plane curves. Examples of quartic perturbations of the standard hyperboloid confirm our conjecture. Our main result is a linearization and reformulation of the problem in the framework of 2-dimensional Sturm theory; we also define a signature of a quadratic point and calculate local normal forms recovering and generalizing Tresse-Wilczynski's theorem.Latex 25 pages, 10 figuresDifferential GeometrySymplectic Geometry53A20, 53C99, 58K50text