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Geometry of Rene Descartes

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ISBN-10: 0812694317

ISBN-13: 9780812694314

Edition: N/A

Authors: Ren� Descartes, David Eugene Smith, Marcia L. Latham

List price: $26.95
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Description:

The great work that founded analytical geometry. Includes the original French text, Descartes' own diagrams, and the definitive Smith-Latham translation. "The greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences." John Stuart Mill.
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Book details

List price: $26.95
Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 246
Size: 5.75" wide x 9.00" long x 0.75" tall
Weight: 0.880
Language: English

Problems the Construction of Which Requires Only Straight Lines and Circles
How the calculations of arithmetic are related to the operations of geometryp. 297
How multiplication, division, and the extraction of square root are performed geometricallyp. 293
How we use arithmetic symbols in geometryp. 299
How we use equations in solving problemsp. 300
Plane problems and their solutionp. 302
Example from Pappusp. 304
Solution of the problem of Pappusp. 307
How we should choose the terms in arriving at the equation in this casep. 310
How we find that this problem is plane when not more than five lines are givenp. 313
On the Nature of Curved Lines
What curved lines are admitted in geometryp. 315
The method of distinguishing all curved lines of certain classes, and of knowing the fatios connecting their points on certain straight linesp. 319
There follows the explanation of the problem of Pappus mentioned in the preceding bookp. 323
Solution of this problem for the case of only three or four linesp. 324
Demonstration of this solutionp. 332
Plane and solid loci and the method of finding themp. 334
The first and simplest of all the curves needed in solving the ancient problem for the case of five linesp. 335
Geometric curves that can be described by finding a number of their pointsp. 340
Those which can be described with a stringp. 340
To find the properties of curves it is necessary to know the relation of their points to points on certain straight lines, and the method of drawing other lines which cut them in all these points at right anglesp. 341
General method for finding straight lines which cut given curves and make right angles with themp. 342
Example of this operation in the case of an ellipse and of a parabola of the second classp. 343
Another example in the case of an oval of the second classp. 344
Example of the construction of this problem in the case of the conchoidp. 351
Explanation of four new classes of ovals which enter into opticsp. 352
The properties of these ovals relating to reflection and refractionp. 357
Demonstration of these propertiesp. 360
How it is possible to make a lens as convex or concave as we wish, in one of its surfaces, which shall cause to converge in a given point all the rays which proceed from another given pointp. 363
How it is possible to make a lens which operates like the preceding and such that the convexity of one of its surfaces shall have a given ratio to the convexity or concavity of the otherp. 366
How it is possible to apply what has been said here concerning curved lines described on a plane surface to those which are described in a space of three dimensions, or on a curved surfacep. 368
On the Construction of Solid or Supersolid Problems
On those curves which can be used in the construction of every problemp. 369
Example relating to the finding of several mean proportionalsp. 370
On the nature of equationsp. 371
How many roots each equation can havep. 372
What are false rootsp. 372
How it is possible to lower the degree of an equation when one of the roots is knownp. 372
How to determine if any given quantity is a rootp. 373
How many true roots an equation may havep. 373
How the false roots may become true, and the true roots falsep. 373
How to increase or decrease the roots of an equationp. 374
That by increasing the true roots we decrease the false ones, and vice versap. 375
How to remove the second term of an equationp. 376
How to make the false roots true without making the true ones falsep. 377
How to fill all the places of an equationp. 378
How to multiply or divide the roots of an equationp. 379
How to eliminate the fractions in an equationp. 379
How to make the known quantity of any term of an equation equal to any given quantityp. 380
That both the true and the false roots may be real or imaginaryp. 380
The reduction of cubic equations when the problem is planep. 380
The method of dividing an equation by a binomial which contains a rootp. 381
Problems which are solid when the equation is cubicp. 383
The reduction of equations of the fourth degree when the problem is plane, Solid problemsp. 383
Example showing the use of these reductionsp. 387
General rule for reducing equations above the fourth degreep. 389
General method for constructing all solid problems which reduce to an equation of the third or the fourth degreep. 389
The finding of two mean proportionalsp. 395
The trisection of an anglep. 396
That all solid problems can be reduced to these two constructionsp. 397
The method of expressing all the roots of cubic equations and hence of all equations extending to the fourth degreep. 400
Why solid problems cannot be constructed without conic sections, nor those problems which are more complex without other lines that are also more complexp. 401
General method for constructing all problems which require equations of degree not higher than the sixthp. 402
The finding of four mean proportionalsp. 411
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