conics
Noun
Meaning
That branch of geometry which treats of the cone and the curves which arise from its sections.
Conic sections.
Source: Webster's dictionarySynonyms
Examples
According to Pappus, "Apollonius, having completed Euclid's four books of conics and added four others, handed down eight volumes of conics."
They were interested primarily in the properties of algebraic curves, such as those defined by Diophantine equations (in the case of Fermat), and the algebraic reformulation of the classical Greek works on conics and cubics (in the case of Descartes).
In other words, in space, all conics are defined as the solution set of an equation of a plane and of the equation of a plane just given.
Some O+ ions ("conics") also seem accelerated in different ways by plasma processes associated with the aurora.