Newton in Perspective

Abstract

THE interesting modern science termed by the Germans Geometrie der Lage, and by the French and other Latin peoples géométrie de position, may be traced in germ to that part of Newton's “Principia” which deals with the construction of curves of the second order, and to what has survived in tradition of Pascal's lost manuscript entitled “Traité complet des Coniques.” The more recent developments of this important subject cast much new light upon Newton's propositions, many of which we are now enabled to solve by easier and more direct methods. A noteworthy example is here fully worked out, in order to show how problems which Newton solved by indirect and circuitous processes may be solved more simply by the aid of modern graphics.