Diagram relating to hyperbola
Date
10 September 1669
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p181
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 309mm
width (page): 200mm
width (page): 200mm
Subject
Description
A diagram from an extract of John Wallis's letter to Renatus Franciscus Slusius dated 10 September 1669. Henry Oldenburg sent this on to Slusius, though it was lost in the post.
Wallis stated that Christopher Wren had asked him to confirm 'a hyperbola' as the answer to the question: if to the points of any straight line ordinates are applied normally at any number of equal intervals, the squares of which are as the squares of the continually increasing numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. increased by any one certain square or by equal squares, what is the curve that passes through their extremities? Wallis reproduced a demonstration of it from his book De cycloide (1659). This was part of Wallis's effort to ensure Wren's priority in the discovery of a hyperbolical cylindroid.
Copied from EL/W1/95/002. There is another copy at LBC/3/220.
Wallis stated that Christopher Wren had asked him to confirm 'a hyperbola' as the answer to the question: if to the points of any straight line ordinates are applied normally at any number of equal intervals, the squares of which are as the squares of the continually increasing numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. increased by any one certain square or by equal squares, what is the curve that passes through their extremities? Wallis reproduced a demonstration of it from his book De cycloide (1659). This was part of Wallis's effort to ensure Wren's priority in the discovery of a hyperbolical cylindroid.
Copied from EL/W1/95/002. There is another copy at LBC/3/220.
Related fellows
Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
John Wallis (1650, British) , Mathematician
John Wallis (1650, British) , Mathematician
Associated place