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SUMMARY:From conic sections to toric sections: experiments with Computer A
 lgebra System leading to curriculum changes - Professor Thierry Dana-Picar
 d\, President of Jerusalem College of Technology\, Israel
DTSTART:20130522T113000Z
DTEND:20130522T123000Z
UID:TALK45539@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ann Waterman
DESCRIPTION:We present a unified point of view on conics\, the invariant o
 f the study being the angle under which a given conic is viewed. The geome
 tric locus of points from which a given ellipse or hyperbola is viewed und
 er a fixed angle θ (θ -isoptic curve of the conic) is a quartic named sp
 iric curve. We show how to characterize the number of components of the θ
  -isoptic curve and reconstruct it as a toric section.\nThis work has been
  done in parallel to a course on Analytic Geometry for in-service teachers
  in Israel. At the beginning\, not all of them had a strong CAS literacy\,
  but they underwent an interesting instrumental genesis. As far as we are 
 concerned by improving the regular curriculum\, the work shows how the usa
 ge of a Computer Algebra System enables the teacher to enrich the curricul
 um by the means of a revival of classical topics in mathematics.\n
LOCATION:GS1\, Donald McIntyre Building\, Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills
  Road\, Cambridge
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