Michael N. Fried

Apollonius’s Conics was one of the greatest works of advanced mathematics in antiquity. The work comprised eight books, of which four have come down to us in their original Greek and three in Arabic. By the time the Arabic translations were produced, the eighth book had already been lost. In 1710, Edmond Halley, then Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, produced an edition of the Greek text of the Conics of Books I-IV, a translation into Latin from the Arabic versions of Books V-VII, and a reconstruction of Book VIII. The present work provides the first complete English translation of Halley’s reconstruction of Book VIII with supplementary notes on the text. It also contains 1) an introduction discussing aspects of Apollonius’s Conics 2) an investigation of Edmond Halley's understanding of the nature of his venture into ancient mathematics, and 3) an appendices giving a brief account of Apollonius’s approach to conic sections and his mathematical techniques. This book will be of interest to students and researchers interested in the history of ancient Greek mathematics and mathematics in the early modern period.

Translation and Commentary

Edmond Halley’s Reconstruction of the Lost Book of Apollonius’s Conics

Tommy Dreyfus

This book is the fruit of a symposium in honor of Ted Eisenberg concerning the growing divide between the mathematics community and the mathematics education community, a divide that is clearly unhealthy for both. The work confronts this disturbing gap by considering the nature of the relationship between mathematics education and mathematics, and by examining areas of commonality as well as disagreement. It seeks to provide insight into the mutual benefit both stand to gain by building bridges based on the natural bonds between them.

Michael N. Fried

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