La geometria descrittiva nell'era informatica

The possibility to draw in a three-dimensional space, given by the digital modelling software, offers to descriptive geometry some new developments, both theoretical and application-oriented, after a long period of evolutionary stagnation, like that of the second half of the twentieth-century. From this point of view the computer has, for the descriptive geometry, a potential similar to the one that the tools of the modern technology have for any science. To demonstrate these premises, we will discuss the Problem of Apollonius, in the plane and in the space, showing how the quality of the logical and operational representation tools has conditioned the solutions given during the course of History and how, instead, this same problem is, today, susceptible to a solution quick and powerful because of its generality. We will also show how the heuristic potential of descriptive geometry, emphasized by Monge as one of the highest merits of this science, is exalted by the use of the new techniques: “in that sense, descriptive geometry is a means in the search for scientific truth and it offers perpetual examples of the passing from what is known to what is unknown…”