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Al-Qūhī and al-Sijzī on the perfect compass and the continuous drawing of conic sections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2003

Roshdi Rashed
Roshdi Rashed
Affiliation:
Centre d'histoire des sciences et des philosophies arabes et médiévales, 7 rue Guy Môquet, B.P. no 8, 9 4801 Villejuif Cedex, France
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Abstract

From the second half of the 10th century, mathematicians developed a new chapter in the geometry of conic sections, dealing with the theory and practice of their continuous drawing. In this article, we propose to sketch the history of this chapter in the writings of al-Qūhī and al-Sijzī. A hitherto unknown treatise by al-Sijzī - established, translated, and commented - has enabled us better to situate and understand the themes of this new research, and how it eventually approached the problem of the classification of curves in previously unknown terms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 9 - 43
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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