The Kansas University Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 2, October 1892Various
History
The Kansas University Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 2, October 1892
Various
Natural history -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Inverting the parabola from its vertex we obtain the Cissoid of
Diocles. The focus of the parabola inverts into a point on the cuspidal
tangent which I shall call the focus of the cissoid. The circle of
curvature at the vertex of the parabola inverts into the asymptote of
the cissoid. This asymptote is also plainly the inflectional tangent,
and the point at infinity is the point of inflection. The directrix
of the parabola inverts into a circle through the cusp of the cissoid
having the cuspidal tangent for a diameter. Hall calls this the
directrix circle. The double ordinate of the parabola which is tangent
to the circle of curvature of the vertex inverts into the circle
usually called the base circle of the cissoid.[3]
The cissoid may fairly be called the simplest form of the cuspidal
cubic. Its projection and polar reciprocal are both cuspidal cubics. I
shall now deduce from the parabola a few simple propositions for the
cissoid, and then extend them to all cuspidal cubics.
(1) It is known that the locus of the intersection of tangents to the
parabola which are at right angles to one another, is the directrix.
Inverting:—the locus of the intersection of tangent circles to the
cissoid through the cusp and at right angles to each other is the
directrix circle.
(2) For the parabola, two right lines O P and O Q, are drawn through
the vertex of the parabola at right angles to one another, meeting the
curve in P and Q; the line P Q cuts the axis at a fixed point, whose
abscissa is equal to its ordinate. Inverting:—two right lines, O P and
O Q, are drawn at right angles to one another through the cusp of the
cissoid, meeting the curve in P and Q; the circle O P Q passes through
the intersection of the axis and asymptote.
(3) If the normals at the points P, O, R, of a parabola meet at
a point, the circle through P O R will pass through the vertex.
Inverting:—through a fixed point and the cusp of a cissoid, three and
only three circles can be passed, cutting the cissoid at right angles;
these three points of intersection are collinear.
From the geometry of the cissoid we see that if any line be drawn
parallel to the asymptote, cutting the curve in two points, B and C,
the segment B C is bisected by the axis. Hence, projecting the curve
we have the following theorem:—any line drawn through the point of
inflection is cut harmonically by the point of inflection, the curve,
and the cuspidal tangent. Thus the cuspidal tangent is the harmonic
polar of the point of inflection. The polar reciprocal of this last
theorem reads as follows:—if from any point on the cuspidal tangent
the two other tangent lines be drawn to the curve, and a line to the
point of inflection, these four lines form a harmonic pencil. These are
fundamental propositions in the theory of cuspidal cubics.
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