Newton’s Parabola Observed from Pappus’ Directrix, Apollonius’ Pedal Curve (Line), Newton’s Evolute, Leibniz’s Subtangent and Subnormal, Castillon’s Cardioid, and Ptolemy’s Circle (Hodograph) (09.02.2019)

Abstract

Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton inspired generations of researchers to study properties of elliptic, hyperbolic, and parabolic paths of planets and other astronomical objects orbiting around the Sun. The books of these two Old Masters “Astronomia Nova” and “Principia…” were originally written in the geometrical language. However, the following generations of researchers translated the geometrical language of these Old Masters into the infinitesimal calculus independently discovered by Newton and Leibniz. In our attempt we will try to return back to the original geometrical language and to present several figures with possible hidden properties of parabolic orbits. For the description of events on parabolic orbits we will employ the interplay of the directrix of parabola discovered by Pappus of Alexandria, the pedal curve with the pedal point in the focus discovered by Apollonius of Perga (The Great Geometer), and the focus occupied by our Sun discovered in several stages by Aristarchus, Copernicus, Kepler and Isaac Newton (The Great Mathematician). We will study properties of this PAN Parabola with the aim to extract some hidden parameters behind that visible parabolic orbit in the Aristotelian World. In the Plato’s Realm some curves carrying hidden information might be waiting for our research. One such curve - the evolute of parabola - discovered Newton behind his famous gravitational law. We have used the Castillon’s cardioid as the curve describing the tangent velocity of objects on the parabolic orbit. In the PAN Parabola we have newly used six parameters introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - abscissa, ordinate, length of tangent, subtangent, length of normal, and subnormal. We have obtained formulae both for the tangent and normal velocities for objects on the parabolic orbit. We have also obtained the moment of tangent momentum and the moment of normal momentum. Both moments are constant on the whole parabolic orbit and that is why we should not observe the precession of parabolic orbit. We have discovered the Ptolemy’s Circle with the diameter a (distance between the vertex of parabola and its focus) where we see both the tangent and normal velocities of orbiting objects. In this case the Ptolemy’s Circle plays a role of the hodograph rotating on the parabolic orbit without sliding. In the Plato’s Realm some other curves might be hidden and have been waiting for our future research. Have we found the Arriadne’s Thread leading out of the Labyrinth or are we still lost in the Labyrinth?