“Since there is always an infinite number of different points satisfying these requirements, it is also required to discover and trace the curve containing all such points. Pappus says that when there are only three or four lines given, this line is one of the three conic sections, but he does not undertake to determine, describe, or explain the nature of the line required when the question involves a greater number of lines. He only adds that the ancients recognized one of them which they had shown to be useful, and which seemed the simplest, and yet was not the most important. This led me to find out whether, by my own method, I could go as far as they had gone.<!--pp.24-25-->”
“The so called άναλυόμϵνος ('Treasury of Analysis') is... a special body of doctrine provided for the use of those who, after finishing the ordinary Elements, are desirous of acquiring the power of sol...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“Analysis... takes that which is sought as if it were admitted and passes from it through its successive consequences to something which is admitted as the result of synthesis: for in analysis we assum...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“But in synthesis, reversing the process, we take as already done that which was last arrived at in the analysis and, by arranging in their natural order as consequences what were before antecedents, a...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“Now analysis is of two kinds, the one directed to searching for the truth and called theoretical, the other directed to finding what we are told to find and called problematical. (1) In the theoretica...”
Pappus of Alexandria
“waives the customary distinction between a circle, and ellipse, a parabola, and a hyperbola; these curves are simply conics, all alike. Although conics were studied by , Euclid, Archimedes and Apollon...”
Pappus of Alexandria