Table of contents : Front Cover Title Page Copyright Page Preface Table of Contents Chapter 1: An ellipse in the shadow The ellipse as a plane section of a cylinder The equation of the ellipse A parametrization of the ellipse The ellipse as a locus Directrix for the ellipse Geometrical determination of foci and directrices for the ellipse The tangents of the ellipse An application to gear wheel movements Sources for Chapter 1 Chapter 2: With conic sections in the light The ellipse as a plane section in a cone Geometric determination of foci and directrices for a conic section The parabola The hyperbola Hyperbolic navigational systems Conic sections as algebraic curves Epilogue Sources for Chapter 2 Chapter 3: Optimal plane figures Isosceles triangles Perrons paradox Some simple geometrical problems without solutions A fundamental property of the real numbers Maxima and minima of real-valued functions The equilateral triangle as optimal figure The square as optimal figure The regular polygons as optimal figures Some limit values for regular polygons The isoperimetric problem Epilogue: Elements of the history of the calculus of variations Sources for Chapter 3 Chapter 4: The Poincare disc model of non-Euclidean geometry Euclids Elements The parallel axiom and non-Euclidean geometries Inversion in a circle Inversion as a mapping Orthogonal circles and Euclids Postulate 1 in the hyperbolic plane The notion of distance in the hyperbolic plane and Euclids Postulate 2 Isometries in the hyperbolic plane Hyperbolic triangles and n-gons The Poincare half-plane Elliptic geometries Sources for Chapter 4 Exercises Index