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Descartes’ method for determinig the tangent to a curve. (El método de Descartes para determinar la tangente a una curva.) (Spanish. English summary) Zbl 1329.01019

The paper transcribes the construction of the normal line to a circle, to an ellipse and to a parabola at a given point, found in Descartes’ La géometrie. In the last part, the authors apply Descartes’ method with contemporary notation for the construction of the normal line to a cubic function, although they state that its application can be performed for a general algebraic function.

MSC:

01A45 History of mathematics in the 17th century
00A35 Methodology of mathematics
97D99 Education and instruction in mathematics
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