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trigonometry
trigonometry [Gr.,=measurement of triangles], a specialized area of geometry concerned with the properties of and relations among the parts of a triangle. Spherical trigonometry is concerned with the study of triangles on the surface of a sphere rather than in the plane; it is of considerable impor...
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secant
secant in mathematics. 1 In geometry, a secant is a straight line cutting a curve or surface. If it intersects the curve in two different points, as in the secant of a circle , the segment of the secant between the points is called a chord. The limiting position of a secant, if such a limit exis...
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Augustus De Morgan
Augustus De Morgan , 1806-71, English mathematician and logician, b. India. A noted teacher, he was professor of mathematics (1828-31, 1836-66) at University College (now part of the Univ. of London) and a founder and first president (1865) of the London Mathematical Society. Known as a reformer of ...
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Leonardo Fibonacci
Leonardo Fibonacci , b. c.1170, d. after 1240, Italian mathematician, known also as Leonardo da Pisa. In Liber abaci (1202, 2d ed. 1228), for centuries a standard work on algebra and arithmetic, he advocated the adoption of Arabic notation. In Practica geometriae (1220) he organized and extended...
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Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre , 1749-1822, French astronomer and mathematician. He was a member of the bureau of longitudes from 1795 and professor at the Collège de France from 1807. With P. F. A. Méchain he measured (1791-99) for the French government an arc of the meridian between B...
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tangent
tangent in mathematics. 1 In geometry, the tangent to a circle or sphere is a straight line that intersects the circle or sphere in one and only one point. For other curves and surfaces the tangent line at a given point P is defined as the limiting position, if such a limit exists, of a sec...
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Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler , 1707-83, Swiss mathematician. Born and educated at Basel, where he knew the Bernoullis, he went to St. Petersburg (1727) at the invitation of Catherine I, becoming professor of mathematics there on the departure of Daniel Bernoulli (1733). He was invited to Berlin (1741) by Frederic...
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Hipparchus
Hipparchus fl. 2d cent. BC, Greek astronomer, b. Nicaea, Bithynia. He is the first systematic astronomer of whom there are records. He made his observations chiefly on the island of Rhodes. Ptolemy's geocentric theory of the universe was based largely on the conclusions of Hipparchus, a record of w...
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Regiomontanus
Regiomontanus [Lat.,=belonging to the royal mountain, i.e., to Königsberg], 1436-76, German astronomer and mathematician, b. Königsberg. His original name was Johannes Müller. In 1461 he went to Rome with Cardinal Bessarion and learned Greek in order to translate Greek writings. In 1...
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sphere
sphere in geometry, the three-dimensional analogue of a circle . The term is applied to the spherical surface, every point of which is the same distance (the radius) from a certain fixed point (the center), and also to the volume enclosed by such a surface. The curve formed by a plane cutting a sp...
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