The Genesis of Differential Methods

Francis Borceux
Additional contact information
Francis Borceux: Université catholique de Louvain

Chapter Chapter 1 in A Differential Approach to Geometry, 2014, pp 1-53 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The study of arbitrary curves—not just conics—becomes possible during the 17th century, first via the consideration of polynomial equations. The development of differential calculus allows next the study of very general curves. We describe the first historical attempts for handling questions like the tangent to a curve, its length or its curvature. We pay a special attention to some curves, like the cycloid, which have played an important role in the development of these notions.

Keywords: Parametric Equation; Multiple Point; Parametric Representation; Differential Calculus; Normal Plane (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-01736-5_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319017365

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-01736-5_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().