Apollonius of Perga (Greek c. 240 BC – c.

190 BC) was an ancient

Greek geometer and astronomer known for his work on conic sections. Beginning from the earlier
contributions of Euclid and Archimedes on the topic, he brought them to the state prior to the
invention of analytic geometry. His definitions of the terms ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola are the
ones in use today. With his predecessors Euclid and Archimedes, Apollonius is generally considered
among the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. [1]Aside from geometry, Apollonius worked on
numerous other topics, including astronomy. Most of this work has not survived, where exceptions
are typically fragments referenced by other authors like Pappus of Alexandria. His hypothesis
of eccentric orbits to explain the apparently aberrant motion of the planets, commonly believed until
the Middle Ages, was superseded during the Renaissance. The Apollonius crater on the Moon is
named in his honor. For such an important contributor to the field of mathematics, scant biographical
information remains. The 6th century Greek commentator Eutocius of Ascalon, writing on
Apollonius' Conics, states: Apollonius, the geometrician, ... came from Perga in Pamphylia in the
times of Ptolemy III Euergetes, so records Herakleios the biographer of Archimedes ....From this
passage Apollonius can be approximately dated, [a] but specific birth and death years stated by
modern scholars are only speculative.[4] Ptolemy III Euergetes ("benefactor") was third Greek dynast
of Egypt in the Diadochi succession, who reigned 246–222/221 BC. "Times" are always recorded by
ruler or officiating magistrate, so Apollonius was likely born after 246. The identity of Herakleios is
uncertain. A letter by the Greek mathematician and astronomer Hypsicles was originally part of the
supplement taken from Euclid's Book XIV, part of the thirteen books of Euclid's Elements., visited
each other, read each other's works and made suggestions, recommended students, and
communicated via some sort of postal service. Surviving letters are abundant.
The preface to Book III is missing, and during the interval Eudemus died, says Apollonius in the
preface to Book IV. Prefaces to Books IV–VII are more formal, mere summaries omitting personal
information. All four are addressed to a mysterious Attalus, a choice made, Apollonius says,
"because of your earnest desire to possess my works". Presumably Attalus was important to be sent
Apollonius' manuscripts. One theory is that Attalus is Attalus II Philadelphus (220–138 BC), general
and defender of Pergamon whose brother Eumenes II was king, and who became co-regent after his
brother's illness in 160 BC and acceded to the throne in 158 BC. Both brothers were patrons of the
arts, expanding the library into international magnificence. Attalus was a contemporary of Philonides
and Apollonius' motive is consonant with Attalus' book-collecting initiative. A conic section, conic or
a quadratic curve is a curve obtained from a cone's surface intersecting a plane. The three types of
conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the
ellipse, though it was sometimes called as a fourth type. The ancient Greek mathematicians studied
conic sections, culminating around 200 BC with Apollonius of Perga's systematic work on their
properties.The conic sections in the Euclidean plane have various distinguishing properties, many of
which can be used as alternative definitions. One such property defines a non-circular conic [1] to be
the set of those points whose distances to some particular point, called a focus, and some particular
line, called a directrix, are in a fixed ratio, called the eccentricity. The type of conic is determined by
the value of the eccentricity. In analytic geometry, a conic may be defined as a plane algebraic
curve of degree 2; that is, as the set of points whose coordinates satisfy a quadratic equation
In the Euclidean plane, the three types of conic sections appear quite different, but share many
properties. By extending the Euclidean plane to include a line at infinity, obtaining a projective plane,
the apparent difference vanishes: the branches of a hyperbola meet in two points at infinity, making
it a single closed curve; and the two ends of a parabola meet to make it a closed curve tangent to
the line at infinity. Further extension, by expanding the real coordinates to
admit complex coordinates, provides the means to see this unification algebraically.
In mathematics, a parabola is a plane curve which is mirror-symmetrical and is approximately U-
shaped. It fits several superficially different mathematical descriptions, which can all be proved to
define exactly the same curves.
One description of a parabola involves a point (the focus) and a line (the directrix). The focus does
not lie on the directrix. The parabola is the locus of points in that plane that are equidistant from the
directrix and the focus. Another description of a parabola is as a conic section, created from the
intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to another plane that
is tangential to the conical surface. The graph of a quadratic function is a parabola if and,
conversively, a parabola is the graph of a quadratic function if its axis is parallel to the y-axis.
The line perpendicular to the directrix and passing through the focus (that is, the line that splits the
parabola through the middle) is called the "axis of symmetry". The point where the parabola
intersects its axis of symmetry is called the "vertex" and is the point where the parabola is most
sharply curved. The distance between the vertex and the focus, measured along the axis of
symmetry, is the "focal length". The "latus rectum" is the chord of the parabola that is parallel to the
directrix and passes through the focus. Parabolas can open up, down, left, right, or in some other
arbitrary direction. Any parabola can be repositioned and rescaled to fit exactly on any other
parabola—that is, all parabolas are geometrically similar.
Parabolas have the property that, if they are made of material that reflects light, then light that travels
parallel to the axis of symmetry of a parabola and strikes its concave side is reflected to its focus,
regardless of where on the parabola the reflection occurs. Conversely, light that originates from a
point source at the focus is reflected into a parallel ("collimated") beam, leaving the parabola parallel
to the axis of symmetry. The same effects occur with sound and other waves. This reflective
property is the basis of many practical uses of parabolas.
The parabola has many important applications, from a parabolic antenna or parabolic microphone to
automobile headlight reflectors and the design of ballistic missiles. It is frequently used
in physics, engineering, and many other areas.
In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on
the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which
is the special type of ellipse in which the two focal points are the same. The elongation of an ellipse
is measured by its eccentricity , a number ranging from (the limiting case of a circle) to (the limiting
case of infinite elongation, no longer an ellipse but a parabola).
An ellipse has a simple algebraic solution for its area, but only approximations for its perimeter (also
known as circumference), for which integration is required to obtain an exact solution.
Ellipses are the closed type of conic section: a plane curve tracing the intersection of a cone with
a plane (see figure). Ellipses have many similarities with the other two forms of conic sections,
parabolas and hyperbolas, both of which are open and unbounded. An angled cross section of
a cylinder is also an ellipse. An ellipse may also be defined in terms of one focal point and a line
outside the ellipse called the directrix: for all points on the ellipse, the ratio between the distance to
the focus and the distance to the directrix is a constant. This constant ratio is the above-mentioned
eccentricity.
The conic sections, or two-dimensional figures formed by the intersection of a plane with a cone at different
angles. The theory of these figures was developed extensively by the ancient Greek mathematicians, surviving
especially in works such as those of Apollonius of Perga. The conic sections pervade modern mathematics.