Abstract
Descartes first studied Pappus’ problem during late 1631 and early 1632, on the instigation of Golius. In Chapter 19 I argued that the confrontation with the problem was decisive for the final stage of the development of his programmatic ideas on geometry. I now turn to his treatment of the problem in the Geometry, where he used it as the central example for illustrating his techniques and showing their power.
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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Bos, H.J.M. (2001). Descartes’ solution of Pappus’ problem. In: Redefining Geometrical Exactness. Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0087-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0087-8_23
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6521-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0087-8
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