22 Curves
It’s easy to draw a curve. Artists do it all the time; architects lay out a sweep of new
buildings in the curve of a crescent, or a modern close. A baseball pitcher throws a
curveball. Sportspeople make their way up the pitch in a curve, and when they shoot for
goal, the ball follows a curve. But, if we were to ask ‘What is a curve?’ the answer is not
so easy to frame.
Mathematicians have studied curves for centuries and from many vantage
points. It began with the Greeks and the curves they studied are now called the
‘classical’ curves.