1. The document discusses the shapes of cables that hang under their own weight. A catenary cable has uniform density along its length and forms the shape y = 1/acos(ax) + C. 2. A parabolic cable has uniform density along the x-axis, supporting a horizontal span. Its shape is a parabola described by y = ax^2/2 + C. 3. Historically, Galileo incorrectly thought the catenary was parabolic, but Huygens, Bernoulli, and Leibniz later derived the correct formula for the catenary curve.