Keith Kendig
This book engages the reader in a journey of discovery through a spirited ,discussion among three characters: Philosopher, Teacher and Student. Throughout ,the book, Philosopher pursues his dream of a unified theory of conics, here ,exceptions are banished. With a helpful teacher and example-hungry student, the ,trio soon finds that conics reveal much of their beauty when viewed over the ,complex numbers. ,In their odyssey, they uncover a goldmine of unsuspected results. They ,experience a series of "Aha!" moments as they stumble upon living brothers to ,familiar conics objects like foci and directrices. They also discover a ,normally-unseen ellipse spanning the gap between the branches of any hyperbola. ,On the applied side, they learn how two interfering wave sources create systems ,of hyperbolas; these are used in making astonishingly precise astronomical ,observations. ,All these discoveries are profusely illustrated with pictures, worked-out ,examples, a generous selection of exercises, and a CD containing 36 applets. ,If you've ever needed a conics formula for area, eccentricity, curvature and ,the like, look in the formula appendix. Here are dozens of useful formulas-a set ,for each of eight different ways of looking at a conic: as a cone slice; as the ,path of a planet moving under the influence of a fixed sun; as a figure ,constructed using two stakes and string; plus five other sets. ,Conics is written in an easy, conversational style, and many historical ,tidbits and other points of interest are scattered throughout the text. Many ,students self-study the book without outside help. This book is ideal for anyone ,having a little exposure to linear algebra and complex numbers. ,System Requirements for running the applets,Windows ,Pentium 4: Windows NT/2000, or Windows XP,128MB of ,RAM,Internet Explorer 6 SP1 or later. ,Java:Â  Java Plug-in TMÂ  ,version 1.42 or later.Â  ,Â ,Macintosh,G4 or G5 processor: Mac ,OS X v. 10.3.4 or later,Safari browser recommended for the Mac,128MB of ,RAM ,Java:Â  Java Plug-in TMÂ  version 1.42 or ,later.
Science,Mathematics
Conics (Dolciani Mathematical Expositions) (Dolciani Mathematical Expositions)