Apollonius of Perga

(flowering of activity - 2 in the second half. BC), native of Perge in Pamphylia, was nicknamed by his contemporaries the great geometer. Study mathematics in Alexandria under the guidance of pupils Euclid. The main surviving work, . become a classic and brought the glory of Apollonia, . - Conic sections in 8 books (in Greek have survived the first 4, . 3 more are in the translation into Arabic, . the latter is not reached) - written in an early development are not preserved writings Euclid Beginning of conic sections,
. Apollonius introduced the concept of the parabola, ellipse and hyperbola and gave them to the theory, preserved in almost unchanged form to the time of Newton. The remaining works, except for a small treatise on the cross section ratio (preserved in Arabic translation), are known only by name. Among other achievements Apollonius - the task of constructing a circle on the three given circles, which is called the circle of Apollonius. In the Almagest Ptolemy says that Apollonius introduced the system of eccentrics and epicycles to explain planetary motion.