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Description
The programme deals with the origins of the coordinate geometry in the early seventeenth century (seen in the bringing together of algebra and geometry). It is presented by Professor Boyer of Brook...lyn College, New York and Graham Flegg of the Open University. Although the Greeks, and much later Nicole Oresme in France, had had some inkling of coordinate geometry, the subject really begins with the application by Descartes of the new methods of algebra to a classical problem of Pappus: the locus to three or four lines. Descartes was led to an algebraic classification of curves and a programme for the geometric solution of algebraic problems. Independently, Fermat analysed conic sections algebraically. Both established the key idea that two unknowns related by one equation define a locus. The programme concludes with the first thorough introduction of modern positive and negative coordinates by Newton in his classification of cubic curves.
The programme deals with the origins of the coordinate geometry in the early seventeenth century (seen in the bringing together of algebra and geometry). It is presented by Professor Boyer of Brook...lyn College, New York and Graham Flegg of the Open University. Although the Greeks, and much later Nicole Oresme in France, had had some inkling of coordinate geometry, the subject really begins with the application by Descartes of the new methods of algebra to a classical problem of Pappus: the locus to three or four lines. Descartes was led to an algebraic classification of curves and a programme for the geometric solution of algebraic problems. Independently, Fermat analysed conic sections algebraically. Both established the key idea that two unknowns related by one equation define a locus. The programme concludes with the first thorough introduction of modern positive and negative coordinates by Newton in his classification of cubic curves.
| Module code and title: | AM289, History of mathematics |
|---|---|
| Item code: | AM289; 06; 1978 |
| First transmission date: | 18-06-1978 |
| Published: | 1978 |
| Rights Statement: | |
| Restrictions on use: | |
| Duration: | 00:24:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Director: | Neil Cleminson |
| Producer: | Jean Nunn |
| Contributors: | Carl Boyer; Graham Flegg |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Keyword(s): | Coordinate geometry; Descartes; Fermat; Newton; Oresme |
| Master spool number: | 6HT/72899 |
| Production number: | 00525_4308 |
| Videofinder number: | 941 |
| Available to public: | no |
