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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
A. E. L. Davis*
Affiliation:
Centre for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, e-mail: ael.davis@imperial.ac.uk
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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
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 91 , Issue 521 , July 2007 , pp. 235 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2007

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References

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