Object Details
- Description
- In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, students studying technical subjects often learned about the representation of surfaces by equations in courses in solid analytic geometry. Schools in Europe, the United States, and Japan sometimes purchased models to illustrate such surfaces. This model is part of series of models of quadric surfaces (surfaces of degree two) designed in 1878 by Rudolf Diesel, then a student at the technical high school in Munich. They were published by the firm of Ludwig Brill in Darmstadt.
- The ellipsoid shown can be represented by the equation: x2/a2 + y2/ b2 + z2/c2 = 1. Sections parallel to any of the axes are ellipses. A grid of perpendicular lines of curvature is shown. A partial tag on the model reads: Ellipsoid.[/] Verlag v. L. Brill 3. Ser., Nr. [. . .]. A mark scratched on the top of the model reads: KILROY (/) SAW (/) This.
- Stand MA.304722.23.07 is marked on the bottom III.4, and is probably for this model.
- Compare 1985.0112.069, two further examples of this model. The model is larger than the ellipsoid with catalog number 1985.0112.068, but the same lines of curvature are shown.
- Stand MA.304722.23.07 may be for this model.
- References:
- Ludwig Brill, Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . ., Darmstadt: L. Brill, 1892, p. 7, 75-76, 91.
- Henry Burchard Fine and Henry Dallas Thompson, Coordinate Geometry, New York: Macmillan Company, 1931, pp. 237-239.
- Gerard Fischer, Mathematical Models, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, vol. I, p. 60, vol. II, pp.25-28.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Brill, L.
- date made
- 1878-1900
- Physical Description
- plaster (overall material)
- paper (tag material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10.2 cm x 20 cm x 15 cm; 4 1/32 in x 7 7/8 in x 5 29/32 in
- Object Name
- Geometric Model
- Other Terms
- Geometric Model; Ellipsoid
