Zoom on the hyperbola

Less famous than the ellipse or the parabola, the hyperbola deserves a closer look. After setting out its definitions, this feature explores its hidden treasures. Replace the unit circle with a hyperbola: sine and cosine transform into new objects, as elegant as they are unexpected. Rotate it around its axis: the hyperboloid of revolution that results fascinates architects and engineers with its extraordinary structural properties. And last but not least: where the ruler and compass fail — trisection of the angle, construction of the regular heptagon — the hyperbola, for its part, succeeds.