Chapter I

1.1 Background of the Study

Conic section is discovered by Menaechmus at Ancient Greece as he was

trying to riddle out the “doubling the cube” problem. He observed that slicing a cone with

a plane not parallel to its base would create certain curves, depending upon the angle at

which the plane passes through the cone: circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola, point, line,

or a pair of intersecting lines.

Contributions are done to it, preceding Menaechmus’ work. Aristaeus and

Euclid dig into it. Archimedes, on the other hand, made theories about conic sections

but published nothing devoted solely to them. The famous “Great Geometer”,

Appollonius, is known because of his eight-chapter series entitled Conic Sections. His

first four works has been passed to us in its maiden language, the next three chapters is

from an Arabic translation and the last one has been lost entirely.

Appollonius was the first to base the theory of all three conics on sections of

one circular cone, right or oblique. He is also the one to give the name ellipse, parabola,

and hyperbola. Instead of using the single-napped cone, he started to use the double

one because it defines conic section better. The way that he created the double-napped

cone is as follows: “If a straight line indefinite in length, and passing always through a

fixed point, be made to move round the circumference of a circle which is not in the

same plane with the point, so as to pass successively through every point of that

circumference, the moving straight line will trace out the surface of a double cone, or
two similar cones lying in opposite directions and meeting in the fixed point, which is the

apex of each cone” (Schmarge, 1999).

Pappus and Proclus,mathematicians, precided Appollonius. They are the

reason why past mathematicians are credited with examining conic setions. They did

this by giving commentaries on their predecessors’ work in the fifth century. They

studied further about conic sections in some minor ways.

After these two mathematicians, conic sections had been nearly forgotten for 12

centuries. It was not until the help of Johannes Kepler’s work came in the sixteenth

century when the invention of printing and the resulting dissemination of Apollonius'

work, that any significant progress in the theory or applications of conic sections

occurred.

This research compiles and proves theorems on conic sections. Examples and

illustrations are also given for further information.

1.2 Review of Related Literature

Menaechmus was a pupil of Eudoxus, a contemporary of Plato (Heath, 1921, p.

251). Much of what we know about Menaechmus' work comes to us from the

commentaries of Eutocius, a Greek scholar who discussed the works of many

mathematicians of his and earlier times, including Menaechmus, Archimedes, and

Apollonius. In his solutions, Menaechmus essentially finds the intersection of (ii) and

(iii), and then, alternatively, the intersection of (i) and (ii). Menaechmus's proof deals
with the general case of the mean proportions. Once we have this, we can take the

special case a=2 b to double the cube. Before giving these two solutions, it should be

noted that Menaechmus did not use the terms "parabola" and "hyperbola" - these terms

are due to Apollonius. Instead, he called a parabola a "section of a right-angled cone",

and a hyperbola a "section of an obtuse-angled cone" (Heath, 1921, p. 111).

According to Geminus, the ancients revolved a right triangle about one of its

legs to determine a cone. Additionally, only right cones were known. Of these right-

angled cones, there are three types. Evidently the vertical angle at the top of the cone

could be less than ninety degrees, more than ninety degrees, or exactly ninety degrees

(Heath, 1921, p. 111).

Contributions are done to it, preceding Menaechmus’ work. Aristaeus and

Euclid dig into it. Archimedes, on the other hand, made theories about conic sections

but published nothing devoted solely to them. The famous “Great Geometer”,

Appollonius, was the first to base the theory of all three conics on sections of one

circular cone, right or oblique. He is also the one to give the name ellipse, parabola, and

hyperbola. Instead of using the single-napped cone, he started to use the double one

because it defines conic section better.

Pappus and Proclus,mathematicians, precided Appollonius. They gave

commentaries on their predecessors’ work in the fifth century. They studied further

about conic sections in some minor ways.

1.3 Research Objective

This study aims to compile and prove the theorems related to conics.
1.4 Significance of the Study

This study makes the students more informed about the conic sections’ history

and its different kinds. This also helps students to study and easily understand conic

sections’ equations and to solve it quickly and easily.

1.5 Methodology

This research wants to inform readers about conic sections. In this research, we

came up doing many things; searching many things like parabola, hyperbola, ellipse,

circle, and many terms defining conic sections. We search definitions in books, and in

2 2 2 x2 y 2
internet. Their equations are: ( x−h ) + ( y −k ) =r for circle, 2 + 2 =1 for ellipse,
a b

y 2 + Dx+ F=0 and x 2+ Ey+ F=0 at point (0 , 0) and y 2 + Dx+ Ey + F=0 and x 2+ Dx+ Ey+ F=0

x2 y 2
at point (h , k ) for parabola, and − =1 for hyperbola.
a2 b2

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study

In this study, theorems involving Conics will be discussed, elaborated, and solved

using simple Mathematics. Curves have their own equation/s which will be tackled and

used in solving. We will not be using Calculus and higher Math in solving those

theorems.