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EUCLID
such loci as were cones, cylinders and spheres. The two
lemmas given by Pappus lend some colour to this view. The
first of these 1 and the figure attached to it are unsatisfactory
as they stand, but Tannery indicated a possible restoration. 2
If this is right, it suggests that one of the loci contained all
the points on the elliptical parallel sections of a cylinder, and
was therefore an oblique circular cylinder. Other assump
tions with regard to the conditions to which the lines in the
figure may be subject would suggest that other loci dealt with
were cones regarded as containing all points on particular
parallel elliptical sections of the cones. In the second lemma
Pappus states and gives a complete proof of the focus-and-
directrix property of a conic, viz. that the locus of a point
the distance of which from a given point is in a given ratio
to its distance from a fixed straight line is a conic section,
which is an ellipse, a parabola or a hyperbola according as the
given ratio is less than, equal to, or greater than unity? Two
conjectures are possible as to the application of this theorem in
Euclid’s Surface-Loci, (a) It may have been used to prove that
the locus of a point the distance of which from a given straight
line is in a given ratio to its distance from a given plane
is a certain cone. Or (6) it may have been used to prove
that the locus of a point the distance of which from a given
point is in a given ratio to its distance from a given plane is
the surface formed by the revolution of a conic about its major
or conjugate axis. 4
We come now to Euclid’s works under the head of
Applied mathematics.
(a) The Phaenomena.
The book on sphaeric intended for use in astronomy and
entitled Phaenomena has already been noticed (pp. 349, 351-2).
It is extant in Greek and was included in Gregory’s edition of
Euclid. The text of Gregory, however, represents the later
of two recensions which differ considerably (especially in
Propositions 9 to 16). The best manuscript of this later
recension (b) is the famous Vat. gr. 204 of the tenth century ^
1 Pappus, vii, p. 1004. 17 ; Euclid, ed. Heiberg-Menge, vol. viii, p. 274.
2 Tannery in Bulletin des sciences mathématiques, 2 e série, YI, p. 149.
3 Pappus, vii, pp. 1004. 28-1014 ; Euclid, vol. viii, pp. 275-81.
* For further details, see The Works of Archimedes, pp. Ixii-lxv.