The Asymptotes of Plane Cueves

Extract

While Professor Nunn’s treatment of Asymptotes (Math. Gazette, May 1926) gives the elementary student a method for finding the equations of linear asymptotes, the present writer feels that there is some weakness in the method, as the geometrical consequences of the various types of asymptote on the general form of a curve are not emphasised. There is, moreover, a serious difficulty for the advanced student. Professor Nunn regards two parallel asymptotes as a degenerate case of the asymptotic parabola, thus throwing over entirely the ideas of multiple points at “infinity”. This must lead to considerable modifications in the values and properties of Pliicker’s numbers. In fact, the change would affect the whole theory of the deficiency of curves.