 Conics in Greek Geometry: Apollonius, Harmonic Division, and Later Greek GeometryChristopher Baltus ()
Chapter Chapter 4 in Collineations and Conic Sections, 2020, pp 45-57 from Springer Abstract: Abstract Why would Greek geometers study the conic sections? We have no direct answer to that question in any ancient text that has survived. It was not, generally, for the scientific applications of conic sections. The earliest practical applications we know of are in sundials, with medieval Arabic scientists. Only in the early modern period, with Galileo (1564–1642), was the parabolic path of bodies in motion recognized. And only with Kepler (1571–1630) were the orbits of planets seen to be ellipses. An exception to this picture is a short work, On Burning Mirrors, whose author, Diocles, Diocles was active about 200 BC. It was, it seems, the first to give the focus of a parabola, with the property that a surface formed by revolving a parabola about its axis would reflect the sun’s rays to the focus of that parabola. But it did not spark work in applications; there is no surviving mention of On Burning Mirrors until the sixth century AD, by Eutocius of Askalon, and, again, in Islamic work of the eleventh century. Date: 2020 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-46287-1_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-46287-1_4 Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Springer Books from Springer |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.