"Of chief interest to mathematicians, but physicists and others will be fascinated ... and intrigued by the fruitful use of non-Cartesian methods. Students ... should find the book stimulating." — British Journal of Applied Physics This study of many important curves, their geometrical properties, and their applications features material not customarily treated in texts on synthetic or analytic Euclidean geometry. Its wide coverage, which includes both algebraic and transcendental curves, extends to unusual properties of familiar curves along with the nature of lesser known curves. Informative discussions of the line, circle, parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola presuppose only the most elementary facts. The less common curves — cissoid, strophoid, spirals, the leminscate, cycloid, epicycloid, cardioid, and many others — receive introductions that explain both their basic and advanced properties. Derived curves-the involute, evolute, pedal curve, envelope, and orthogonal trajectories-are also examined, with definitions of their important applications. These range through the fields of optics, electric circuit design, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, classical mechanics, electromagnetism, crystallography, gear design, road engineering, orbits of subatomic particles, and similar areas in physics and engineering. The author represents the points of the curves by complex numbers, rather than the real Cartesian coordinates, an approach that permits simple, direct, and elegant proofs.

* Employs proven conception of teaching topics in commutative algebra through a focus on their applications to algebraic geometry, a significant departure from other works on plane algebraic curves in which the topological-analytic aspects are stressed *Requires only a basic knowledge of algebra, with all necessary algebraic facts collected into several appendices * Studies algebraic curves over an algebraically closed field K and those of prime characteristic, which can be applied to coding theory and cryptography * Covers filtered algebras, the associated graded rings and Rees rings to deduce basic facts about intersection theory of plane curves, applications of which are standard tools of computer algebra * Examples, exercises, figures and suggestions for further study round out this fairly self-contained textbook

Excerpt from Constructive Geometry of Plane Curves: With Numerous Examples I can say from experience that the practice of sketching a curve freehand through a series of previously found points is a most valuable element in teaching mechanical drawing, while the finding the points furnishes abundant exercise in handling square and compasses, and impresses on the student in a very striking manner the necessity for neatness and accuracy in their use. Each problem may of course be drawn on paper without reference to the proof of the principle on which its con struction depends, but I consider that for the advanced student at any rate it must be much more satisfactory to work with as complete an insight as possible into the methods he is using instead of groping along by mere rule of thumb, so that in nearly all cases notes in proof of the property made use of have been added, although such proofs may be found in numerous published works, and are indeed so completely common property that I have not thought it necessary to give direct references to the pages from which they have been taken. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.