This MacTutor biography gives approximate dates and discusses the surviving evidence for Diocles' work on the cissoid of Diocles and the parabola. The footer identifies John Joseph O'Connor and Edmund Frederick Robertson as authors and April 1999 as its revision date.
Substituting , into the circle equation gives . Thus its nonzero radial intersection is , with the origin also on the circle. The tangent to a circle at the rightmost point is , or .
Take rays with . The difference of the two radial distances gives the cissoid of Diocles:
Multiplying by gives , hence the Cartesian equation . A convenient parametric curve, with , is
The real curve has , a cusp at the origin, symmetry about the axis, and the vertical asymptote . Near the origin, and , so its cusp has horizontal tangent direction. As , while . The circle and curve meet away from the origin at .
Figure 1.
The cissoid has a cusp at the origin and approaches the tangent line
. An original plot of the derived parametric formula, with the unit circle centred at and its tangent line . Details.