scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1462096

Plane and space curves (14H50) Descriptive geometry (51N05) Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to differential geometry (53-01) Curves in Euclidean and related spaces (53A04) Computer graphics; computational geometry (digital and algorithmic aspects) (68U05)

Review text

Like other subjects, the way mathematics is taught is slowly but constantly changing, accommodating for changes in research areas, didactical fashions, and even broader societal influences. It is in the nature of this process that certain subjects that previously commanded a central place in the university curriculum are shifted to the periphery or even disappear altogether. In a way, this has happened to a great extent with classical analytical geometry (and ironically just as much with its antithesis, synthetic geometry); with the demise of this subject as a research area, it all but vanished from the classrooms of the middle-to-late twentieth century math courses, giving way instead to the more general and abstract disciplines of algebraic and differential geometry. This shift has possibly led students and teachers alike to shy away from geometry as a difficult subject area. Yet, driven by the advances of computer technology and the emergence of computer-assisted geometrical research areas, the attention to classical geometry has risen again lately and one finds an increase in attempts to reincorporate it in modern math courses. This development is accompanied by a more general tendency in mathematics teaching to depart from the modernist, Bourbakian style of teaching mathematics on as abstract a footing as possible, to a more genetic way of approaching a subject inductively, proceeding from the simple and concrete to the more complicated and general. The present book attempts to renew the interest of teachers and students in geometry by presenting an elementary, self-contained exposition of the study of planar curves, given as parametric curves, algebraic curves, or projective curves. The book requires only a minimal acquaintance with linear algebra and calculus and will therefore be suitable for first-year college or university courses for both students of mathematics as well as of other disciplines. It may also be used by advanced high-school students and is suitable for self-study. The book is divided into the following chapters: Lines, Circles and Conics; Conics: General Position; Some Higher Algebraic and Transcendental Curves; Parameters, Tangents, Normals. Contact, Inflexions; Undulations; Cusps, Non-Regular Points; Curvature; Curvature Applications; Circle of Curvature; Limacons; Evolutes; Parallels, Involutes; Roulettes; Envelopes; Singular Points of Algebraic Curves; Projective Curves. Proceeding slowly and carefully, the book achieves to present a systematic and historically grounded, as well as example-laden and practical introduction which will enable the student to appreciate and delve further into more advanced topics. It thus makes a valuable contribution to reinstating the popular place that geometry previously enjoyed in mathematical education.

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