This is a study of Proposition II.14 of Appolonius's \textit{Conics}, which states that the asymptote and the hyperbola approach each other indefinitely, the distance between them becoming smaller than any given segment, without ever meeting. It is first shown why the Proposition (there are, in fact, two versions of it, which the author believes originate in two editions of the \textit{Conics}, one of which was available to its Arab translator) caused a stir in the minds of philosophers, such as Proclus, with its mention (in the version of Eutocius) of an ``extension towards infinity of the asymptote, then what solutions were offered to the perceived problems by various mathematicians, including al-Sijzī\, in the second half of the 10th century, and by his successor al-Qummī\, (whose work on Proposition II.14 can be found in Arabic and in French translation in an appendix to this paper).
- Asymptotes of plane curves -- revisited
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3964842
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4063017
- Apollonius of Perga, Conics. Volume 1.1: Book I. Greek and Arabic text established, translated and annotated under the direction of Roshdi Rashed. Historical and mathematical commentary, edition and translation of the Arabic text by Rashed
- Asymptotic geometry of algebraic curves
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