Mid-Century Modern Apollonius Cone Sculpture

Apollonius Cone

Did I really need a Mid-Century Modern wooden Apollonius Cone sculpture? Why, yes -- yes, I did.

The knowledge of conic sections can be traced back to Ancient Greece. Menaechmus is credited with the discovery of conic sections around the years 360-350 B. C. -- it is reported that he used them in his two solutions to the problem of "doubling the cube."

Following the work of Menaechmus, these curves were investigated by Aristaeus and of Euclid. The next major contribution to the growth of conic section theory was made by the great Archimedes. Though he obtained many theorems concerning the conics, it does not appear that he published any work devoted solely to them. 

Apollonius, on the other hand, is known as the "Great Geometer" on the basis of his text "Conic Sections," an eight-book (or in modern terms, chapter) series on the subject. The first four books have come down to us in the original Ancient Greek, but books V-VII are known only from an Arabic translation, while the eighth book has been lost entirely.

In the years following Apollonius the Greek, geometric tradition started to decline, though there were developments in astronomy, trigonometry, and algebra. 

Pappus (who lived about 300 A. D.) furthered the study of conic sections somewhat, in minor ways. After Pappus, however, conic sections were nearly forgotten for 12 centuries. 

It was not until the sixteenth century, in part as a consequence of the invention of printing and the resulting dissemination of Apollonius' work, that any significant progress in the theory or applications of conic sections occurred -- but when it did occur, in the work of Kepler, it was as part of one of the major advances in the history of science.

Apollonius Cone

Apollonius Cone

Apollonius Cone

Apollonius Cone