ANALYTIC GEOMETRY

Apollonius of Perga – “The Great

Geometer”
- he is first to study conic sections
and its properties
- his book Conics introduced terms
such as parabola, ellipse and
hyperbola
Books of Apollonius
1. Cutting of a Ratio
2. Cutting an Area
3. On Determinate Section
4. Tangencies
5. Plane loci
6. On verging constructions
Conic sections have many uses.
Paraboloids of revolution – parabolas
rotated about their axes of symmetry
1. signal collectors
2. solar energy collectors
3. reflectors ( telescope, light
projection)
CONICS
Conic comes from the word

cone, a geometric
figure that can be
constructed in
different ways
Conics (conic sections)
- curves that result from the inter-
section of a (right circular) cone
an a plane
- The intersection can take place
either at the vertex of the cone, or
any part of the nappe
Conics when the plane does
not contain the vertex (Fig. 2)
1. CIRCLES
- Generated
when the plane
is perpendi-cular
to the axis of the
cone and
intersects each
generator.
2. ELLIPSES
- the plane is
tilted slightly so
that it intersects
each generator,
but intersects
only one nappe of
the cone
3. PARABOLAS
- the plane is tilted
further so that it is
parallel to one (and
only one) generator
and intersects only
one nappe of the
cone
4. HYPERBOLA
- the plane
intersects both
nappes
* Analytically, a conic section is
defined as the path of a point
which moves so that its distance
from a fixed point called the
focus is in constant ratio to its
distance from a fixed line called
the directrix. This ratio is called
eccentricity.
* If the plane contains the
vertex, the intersection of
the plane and the cone is a
point, a line , or a pair of
intersecting lines. These are
usually called degenerate
conics. (Fig. 3)