>
> Can anyone tell me, on behalf of a colleague, how to find out the history
> of stereographic projection, and perhaps also some other projections. For
> example, just when was stereo projection introduced, and by whom.
>
> Many thanks, David Fowler
>
Otto Neugebauer's History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy has a
section (pp. 857--860) on stereographic projection, in connection with
Ptolemy's treatise "Planisphaerium", which gives the theory of the
astrolabe. Neugebauer writes (p. 858), "There is plenty of evidence that
the method of stereographic projection is not Ptolemy's invention but
antedates him by at least two centuries. It has often been stated, as if
it were self-evident, that Hipparchus created the method and applied it
to instrumental use, while others with equal confidence credited Eudoxus,
two centuries before Hipparchus, with the invention. The scanty evidence
upon which such statements rest (or do not rest) will be presented at the
end of this section." Neugebauer also remarks (p. 859) that the first
published proof of the conformality of stereographic projection seems to
be due to Halley, though he gives a reference to an article of Lohne on
the work of Harriot.
Neugebauer's book also contains a brief discussion of the history
of the astrolabe, and a discussion of map projections.
Stacy Langton
University of San Diego
langton@acusd.edu