The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
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The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
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fl. second century B.C.
Greek mathematician known chiefly through Proclus's (410?-485) comments on his development of spiric surfaces and sections. A spiric surface, as defined by Proclus, is one in which a circle revolves around a straight line (the axis of revolution) but always remains in the same plane as the axis. Depending on whether the axis cuts the circle, is tangent to it, or is outside the circle, three distinct varieties of spiric surface are possible. (Visually these resemble an oval, a figure 8 with a broad waist, and a figure 8 with a narrow waist.) Proclus compared Perseus's work on spiric sections—formed when a plane parallel to the axis of revolution cuts the spiric surface—to Apollonius's (c. 262-c. 190 B.C.) studies of conics.