Abstract
In previous chapters we introduced Fermat’s and Descartes’ splendid rectilinear coordinate system, which allows us to graph various symbolic relationships. However, we can’t stop with just the simple Cartesian system, for the curious cannot leave well enough alone. We must see if it is possible to alter the rectilinear coordinate system into something even more interesting. For example, what happens when we use a y-axis that is not perpendicular to the x-axis? Figure 92 shows such a system where the y-axis intersects the x-axis at 60 degrees. In the second quadrant we have drawn a normal circle whose equation is:
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Endnote
Carl Boyer, A History of Mathematics (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1991), p. 448.
Ibid., p. 458.
Eli Maor, e: The Story of a Number (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 123.
Some may object to this characterization of Cambridge University. However, when we think of English mathematicians, we think of Wallis, Barrow, Newton, Cayley, Sylvester, Littlewood, Hardy, Russell, and Ramanujan—all Cambridge boys.
Boyer, A History of Mathematics, p. 586.
Ibid., p. 588.
Ibid., p. 520.
Ibid., p. 546.
Lloyd Motz and Jefferson Hane Weaver, The Story of Mathematics (New York: Plenum Press, 1993), p. 282.
Ibid., p. 285.
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© 1999 Calvin C. Clawson
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Clawson, C.C. (1999). Stretching Space. In: Mathematical Sorcery. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6433-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6433-5_8
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