Questions of this type go back to Apollonius, but such questions had arisen while Chasles was working on geometry, in particular the Steiner "problem of five conics" was posed in 1848.
Mga katanungan ng ganitong uri bumalik sa Apollonius, ngunit tulad ng mga katanungan had arisen habang Chasles ay nagtatrabaho sa geometry, sa partikular na ang Steiner "problema ng limang conics" ay posed in 1848.