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Seventeenth century instruments for drawing conic sections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Jan Van Maanen
Jan Van Maanen*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen and University of Utrecht, Mathematical Institute, Budapestlaan 6, P.O. Box 80.010, 3508 TA Utrecht
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Extract

One of the consequences of Descartes’ new approach to geometry (1637) was an increased interest in instruments for drawing conic sections. Conic section drawers, which is the name I shall give to instruments for drawing conic sections in a continuous movement, had been described earlier, but the central role of conic sections in the geometry of Descartes made them by about 1640 into a new topic of research. This article sketches the background to this growing interest and then describes some of the instruments designed by the Dutch mathematician Van Schooten (1615/6 – 1660). It concludes with an application of this material in mathematics teaching.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 76 , Issue 476 , July 1992 , pp. 222 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1992

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