Perseus (geometer)

Perseus (Greek: Περσεύς; c. 150 BC) was an ancient Greek geometer, who invented the concept of spiric sections, in analogy to the conic sections studied by Apollonius of Perga.

Life[edit]

Few details of Perseus' life are known, as he is mentioned only by Proclus and Geminus; none of his own works have survived.

Spiric sections[edit]

The spiric sections result from the intersection of a torus with a plane that is parallel to the rotational symmetry axis of the torus. Consequently, spiric sections are fourth-order (quartic) plane curves, whereas the conic sections are second-order (quadratic) plane curves. Spiric sections are a special case of a toric section, and were the first toric sections to be described.

Examples[edit]

The most famous spiric section is the Cassini oval, which is the locus of points having a constant product of distances to two foci. For comparison, an ellipse has a constant sum of focal distances, a hyperbola has a constant difference of focal distances, and a circle has a constant ratio of focal distances.

References[edit]

• Tannery P. (1884) "Pour l'histoire des lignes et de surfaces courbes dans l'antiquité", Bull. des sciences mathématique et astronomique, 8, 19–30.
• Heath TL. (1931) A history of Greek mathematics, vols. I & II, Oxford.
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Perseus", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews