BRAIKENRIDGE, Guiielmo. Exercitatio Geometrica de descriptione Linearum Curvarum. 1733.
BRAIKENRIDGE, Guiielmo.
Exercitatio Geometrica de descriptione Linearum Curvarum.
London, Nourse, 1733.
Small 4to (235x190 mm), viii-70-(2) pages. binding : Moder hardcovers.
First edition.
Braikenridge's reputation as a mathematician rests upon this study of the properties of curves (Sotheby's. Library of Macclesfield, II lot 416).
references: DSB [II, p. 418 : " it is upon his Exercitatio geometrica de descriptione linearum curvarum (1733) that his reputation mainly rests. This work is divided into three parts, and its scope is indicated by their titles: “De descriptione curvarum primi generis seu linearum ordinis secundi,” “De descriptione linearum cujuscunque ordinis ope linearum ordinis inferioris,” and “Ubi describuntur sectiones conicae ope plurium rectarum circa polos moventium. (...) Many of Maclaurin’s theorems were discovered independently by Braikenridge, notably the Braikenridge–Maclaurin theorem: If the sides of a polygon are restricted so that they pass through fixed points while all the vertices except one lie on fixed straight lines, the free vertex will describe a conic or a straight line. A general statement of this appeared in 1735 in the Philosophical Transactions (no. 436), and a dispute at once arose regarding priority”].
Price : 750 €
