Spatial Localization Problem and the Circle of Apollonius
Physics Education
2009-04-03 v9 Popular Physics
Abstract
The Circle of Apollonius is named after the ancient geometrician Apollonius of Perga. This beautiful geometric construct can be helpful when solving some general problems of mathematical physics, optics and electricity. Here we discuss its applications to the 'source localization' problems, e.g. pinpointing a radioactive source using the set of Geiger counters. The Circles of Apollonius help analyze these problems in transparent and intuitive manner. This discussion can be useful for High School Physics and Math curriculum.
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0701146,
title = {Spatial Localization Problem and the Circle of Apollonius},
author = {Joseph Cox and Michael B. Partensky},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0701146},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures. Some minor changes, in response to readers' suggestions. A numeric error is fixed in page 2. The rest of the paper is not affected by this change