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MATHEMATICIAN, PHYSICIST
DIOCLES OF ALEXANDRIA (fl. 2nd century BC)
Work
Diocles lived in Alexandria. His principal work is:
"On burning mirrors": A treatise on focal lenses that also deals with two familiar mathematical problems of the age:
1. "Archimedes' Problem", that is, how to divide a sphere by a plane in such a way that volumes of the resulting segments have a given ratio. Diocles solved it by means of two conical sections, an ellipse and an isosceles hyperbola.
2. "The Delian problem", that is, the duplication of the cube. Diocles drew a curve with two branches symmetrical about a cusp on the diameter and proceeding to infinity; this has since been known as the "cissoid of Diocles". In the 17th century Newton devised an instrument to trace it in a single movement
Fragments of Diocles' work exist in Arabic translation in the Escorial (Spain).
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