ORIGINS OF MODERNITY

mathematics

Wallis, John (1616-1703)
Tractatus duo.
Oxoniae : Typis Academicis Lichfeldianis, 1659.

This work includes Wallis' analysis of two curves, the cycloid and the cissoid, which were objects of intense study in the early modern period. The cycloid, originally named by Galileo, is the locus of a point on the rim of a circle of radius a rolling along a straight line. The cissoid was a curve invented by Diocles circa 180BC which was often used in attempts to duplicate the cube using geometric methods.