Abstract
THIS is one of the volumes of the publisher's Mathematical Series, is very well printed, and has, if we are not mistaken, only three trivial misprints. There is quite a run at the present time on this subject, if we may judge by the number of treatises which have recently made their appearance, and this we are not altogether surprised at, as it is one of great interest; its theorems have great intrinsic beauty and almost boundless applications. The ordinary propositions are discussed not altogether in the usual order of consecution from the locus-point of view (the last chapter of four pages being devoted to the cone); the demonstrations are neat, and two or three are exceedingly concise as well. The only or chief novelty is the simultaneous treatment of the ellipse and the hyperbola, the corresponding propositions facing one another on the even and odd pages respectively. The discussion of the asymptotic properties of the latter curve pairs off against a series of propositions on projections. The book is a good working one for beginners, and embraces sufficient for the preliminary examination for mathematical honours at Cambridge, without having too much for school use. There is an extensive selection of exercises.
An Elementary Treatise on Geometrical Conic Sections.
By G. Richardson (Rivington, 1873.)
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T., R. An Elementary Treatise on Geometrical Conic Sections . Nature 9, 101 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/009101a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009101a0