Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T14:44:20.539Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Some plane geometry from a cone the focal distance of an ellipse at a glance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

A. E. L. Davis*
Affiliation:
Centre for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, e-mail: [email protected]

Extract

This article came about as a response to the Supplement to the Gazette Number 514 [1] which consists of an extended version of Sir Christopher Zeeman’s Presidential Address to The Mathematical Association at York in 2004. His intention was to stimulate the teaching of 3-dimensionaI geometry in schools, and his publication will certainly satisfy some long-felt needs. It contains a short section on conies, which seemed relevant to a topic I am already investigating: the level of knowledge of conic geometry potentially available to the Greeks before the time of Apollonius. Professor Zeeman has encouraged me to publish the first stage of this research in the Gazette to provide a background to his discussion.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Zeeman, Christopher, Supplement to The Mathematical Gazette Number 514 (March 2005).Google Scholar
2. Greek mathematical works, Volume 1, from Thales to Euclid, trans. Thomas, Ivor, Loeb Classical Library 335 (1980) pp. 256309.Google Scholar
3. Kepler, Johannes, Astronomiae Pars Optica, Frankfurt (1604) Ch.IV.Google Scholar
4. Boyer, C. B., History of analytic geometry, The Scholar’s Bookshelf (1988) p. 114.Google Scholar
5. The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements (three volumes), trans. Heath, Thomas, Dover (2000).Google Scholar
6. The Works of Archimedes, trans. Heath, Thomas, Dover (2002).Google Scholar
7. Davis, A. E. L., ‘Grading the eggs’, Centaurus 35, 2 (1992) pp. 121142.Google Scholar
8. Kepler, Johannes, The Harmony of the World. Translation, introduction and notes by Aiton, E. J., Duncan, A. M., Field, J. V., American Philosophical Society, 1997. Book V, Ch.3, Prop. 8.Google Scholar
9. The Conies of Apollonius of Perga, trans. Heath, Thomas, Cambridge (1961).Google Scholar
10. Kepler, Johannes, Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, Book V, Frankfurt (1621) Part I, Section 3.Google Scholar
11. Kepler, Johannes, Astronomia Nova, Heidelberg (1609) Ch.59.Google Scholar
12. Davis, A. E. L., ‘Kepler’s unintentional ellipse – a celestial detective story’, Math. Gaz. 82, (March 1998) pp. 3743.Google Scholar