Géométrie

1829 · Best.-Nr. 41605 — Berlin G. Reimer 1829. 4to. No wrappers. Extracted from "Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik. Hrsg. von A.L. Crelle" Bd. 4. - Plücker's paper pp. 349-370 First edition of a major paper in the arithmetization of geometry introducing the so-called triangular coordinates. "In 1829 Plücker contributed to Crelle's Journal the paper offered here with a revolutionary point of view that broke completely with the old Cartesian view of coordinates as line segments. The equation of a straight line in homogenous coordinates has the form ax by ct=0.Plücker saw that one could modify the usual language and call abc the homogenous coordinates of a line.Plücker had discovered the immidiate analytic counterpart of the geometric principle of duality about which Gergonne and Poncelet had quarreled; it now became clear that the justification that pure geometry had sought in vain was here supplied by the algebraic point of view." Boyer History of Mathematics. unknown