"Descartes' parabola" and the traditional parabola : a reconstruction of a historical method with the help of the "mathematica" program

2007

Masteroppgave i matematikkdidaktikk 2007 - Høgskolen i Agder, Kristiansand This study concentrates on Descartes’ geometry, especially the Descartes’ parabola and traditional parabola. Who is Descartes? René Descartes (1596-1650) was a 17th century French philosopher, mathematician and a man of science whose work, La géométrie, includes his application of algebra to geometry from which we now have Cartesian geometry. His work had a great influence on both mathematicians and philosophers. In mathematics Descartes chief contribution was in analytical geometry. Descartes made other known contributions to mathematics. He was the first to use the first letters of the alphabet to represent known q…