"Parabola, ellipse, hyperbola, and circle are called conic sections, or simply conics, because they can all be obtained as plane sections of a circular cone. They were originally studied from that point of view, and nearly all their elementary properties that are known to-day were proved by the Greek geometers more than two thousand years ago. The conic sections are of especial interest because of the fact that the paths of all the heavenly bodies are curves of this kind. This fact was first established by the great German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler, in 1609. He showed that the planet Mars moves in an ellipse; the other planets, including of course the earth, do the same, while many comets move in parabolas or hyperbolas."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Raymond Benedict McClenon & William James Rusk, Introduction to the Elementary Functions (1918)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ellipse
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Ellipse
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Ellipse →
Related Quotes
"Two years before the publication of his Dioptrics, viz. in 1609, Kepler had given to the world his great work entitle…"
"The figure A D B E [in Figure 9] represents the form of a planetary orbit, which is that of an oval or ellipse. The l…"
"Lagrange, struck with the circumstance that the calculus had never given any inequalities but such as were periodical…"
"The planetary orbits are not exact circles, but are more or less elliptical, the Sun being situated not at the centre…"
"Kepler's observation of the elliptical rotation of the planets was the first of three laws, quantitatively expressed,…"
"If the earth attracts the moon, why does not the moon fall to the earth? A glance at the accompanying figure will hel…"
"Imagine but a single planet revolving about the sun. According to Newton's law of gravitation, the planet's path woul…"
"According to Newton's law an isolated planet in its motion around a central sun would describe, period after period, …"
"Mercury. The inclination and eccentricity of orbit are greater than those of any of the planets. In obedience to Kepl…"
"Since the ellipse is the most important of all conic sections in the study of the orbits of the planets, we discuss t…"