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From: rab@well.UUCP (Bob Bickford)
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: Question came up at a party
Message-ID: <532@well.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Jan-86 10:07:12 EST
Article-I.D.: well.532
Posted: Wed Jan 22 10:07:12 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jan-86 22:06:58 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 15
Summary: Conic Sections Equations


	Is there a formula which describes *all* conic sections, which
will generate a particular class of same (e.g., circles, hyperbolas)
when certain coefficients are plugged into it?

	This came up at a party, when one person maintained that the
various conic sections are fundamentally different, and the rest of us
that they are all 'special cases' of the same thing.  Finally, he
challenged us to write an equation as above.  Nobody could do it!
(But then, nobody there had a degree in math [if that means anything].)

	Please reply on net.math


       Robert Bickford     (rab@well.uucp)