Apollonius

Apollonius of Perga
Apollonius of Perga, ancient Greek mathematician
Born	c. 262 BC Perga, Pamphylia, Ancient Greece
Died	c. 190 BC Alexandria, Egypt
Nationality	Greek
Known for	Conic sections

Apollonius of Perga was an ancient Greek mathematician, renowned for his work on conic sections. His contributions laid the groundwork for much of modern geometry and influenced later mathematicians such as Isaac Newton and René Descartes.

Biography

Apollonius was born around 262 BC in Perga, a city in the region of Pamphylia in what is now modern-day Turkey. He studied in Alexandria, which was a major center of learning in the ancient world, under the successors of Euclid. Apollonius spent much of his life in Alexandria, where he conducted his most significant work.

Contributions to Mathematics

Apollonius is best known for his treatise on conic sections, a subject that had been previously studied by Menaechmus and Euclid. His work, known as the "Conics," is divided into eight books, though only the first four have survived in Greek; the remaining books are known through Arabic translations.

Conic Sections

Apollonius's "Conics" systematically explored the properties of conic sections, which are the curves obtained by intersecting a cone with a plane. These include the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola. Apollonius introduced the terms we use today and developed methods for deriving their properties.

Influence

The work of Apollonius on conics was highly influential in the development of analytical geometry and calculus. His methods were used by later mathematicians such as Ptolemy in astronomy and by Kepler in his laws of planetary motion.

Legacy

Apollonius's work on conics was not fully appreciated until the Renaissance, when mathematicians like Francois Viète and Johannes Kepler rediscovered and expanded upon his ideas. His influence is seen in the development of projective geometry and the study of optics.

Also see

• Euclid
• Menaechmus
• Conic section
• Analytical geometry
• Ptolemy