The Ancient Tradition Of Geometric Problems
   HOME
*





The Ancient Tradition Of Geometric Problems
''The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems'' is a book on ancient Greek mathematics, focusing on three problems now known to be impossible if one uses only the straightedge and compass constructions favored by the Greek mathematicians: squaring the circle, doubling the cube, and trisecting the angle. It was written by Wilbur Knorr (1945–1997), a historian of mathematics, and published in 1986 by Birkhäuser. Dover Publications reprinted it in 1993. Topics ''The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems'' studies the three classical problems of circle-squaring, cube-doubling, and angle trisection throughout the history of Greek mathematics, also considering several other problems studied by the Greeks in which a geometric object with certain properties is to be constructed, in many cases through transformations to other construction problems. The study runs from Plato and the story of the Delian oracle to the second century BC, when Archimedes and Apollonius of Perga flourishe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Greek Mathematics
Greek mathematics refers to mathematics texts and ideas stemming from the Archaic through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, mostly extant from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, around the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. Greek mathematicians lived in cities spread over the entire Eastern Mediterranean from Italy to North Africa but were united by Greek culture and the Greek language. The word "mathematics" itself derives from the grc, , máthēma , meaning "subject of instruction". The study of mathematics for its own sake and the use of generalized mathematical theories and proofs is an important difference between Greek mathematics and those of preceding civilizations. Origins of Greek mathematics The origin of Greek mathematics is not well documented. The earliest advanced civilizations in Greece and in Europe were the Minoan and later Mycenaean civilizations, both of which flourished during the 2nd millennium BCE. While these civilizations possessed writing and ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Menaechmus
:''There is also a Menaechmus in Plautus' play, ''The Menaechmi''.'' Menaechmus ( el, Μέναιχμος, 380–320 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician, geometer and philosopher born in Alopeconnesus or Prokonnesos in the Thracian Chersonese, who was known for his friendship with the renowned philosopher Plato and for his apparent discovery of conic sections and his solution to the then-long-standing problem of doubling the cube using the parabola and hyperbola. Life and work Menaechmus is remembered by mathematicians for his discovery of the conic sections and his solution to the problem of doubling the cube. Menaechmus likely discovered the conic sections, that is, the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola, as a by-product of his search for the solution to the Delian problem. Menaechmus knew that in a parabola y2 = ''L''x, where ''L'' is a constant called the ''latus rectum'', although he was not aware of the fact that any equation in two unknowns determines a curve. He ap ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mathematical Reviews
''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also publishes an associated online bibliographic database called MathSciNet which contains an electronic version of ''Mathematical Reviews'' and additionally contains citation information for over 3.5 million items as of 2018. Reviews Mathematical Reviews was founded by Otto E. Neugebauer in 1940 as an alternative to the German journal ''Zentralblatt für Mathematik'', which Neugebauer had also founded a decade earlier, but which under the Nazis had begun censoring reviews by and of Jewish mathematicians. The goal of the new journal was to give reviews of every mathematical research publication. As of November 2007, the ''Mathematical Reviews'' database contained information on over 2.2 million articles. The authors of reviews are volunteers, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Isis (journal)
''Isis'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. It covers the history of science, history of medicine, and the history of technology, as well as their cultural influences. It contains original research articles and extensive book reviews and review essays. Furthermore, sections devoted to one particular topic are published in each issue in open access. These sections consist of the Focus section, the Viewpoint section and the Second Look section. History The journal was established by George Sarton and the first issue appeared in March 1913. Contributions were originally in any of four European languages (English, French, German, and Italian), but since the 1920s, only English has been used. Publication is partly supported by an endowment from the Dibner Fund. Two associated publications are ''Osiris'' (established 1936 by Sarton) and the ''Isis Current Bibliography''. The publication of the journal was interrupted in 1914 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Classical Review
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Tom Whiteside
Derek Thomas Whiteside Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (23 July 1932 – 22 April 2008) was a British History of Mathematics, historian of mathematics. Biography In 1954 Whiteside graduated from Bristol University with a B.A. having studied French, Latin, mathematics and philosophy. He had spent part of 1952 studying at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. In 1956 he began graduate study with Richard Braithwaite who referred him to Michael Hoskin (1930–2021). In 1959 he submitted the manuscript "Mathematical patterns of thought in the late seventeenth century" to Hoskin who submitted it to Archive for History of Exact Sciences for publication. Hoskin and Whiteside were joined by Adolf Prag (1906–2004) to edit the eight volume ''Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton'' (1967 to 1981). Reviewing first volume of the work, Christoph Scriba wrote, "...must be praised the extraordinary care and conscientiousness of the editor who collected, organized, transcribed and edited the weal ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Close Reading
In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, effected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, the order in which the sentences unfold ideas, as well as formal structures. A truly attentive close reading means thinking about both what is being said in a passage (the content), and how it is being said (the form, i.e. the manner in which the content is presented) and leading it to possibilities for observation and insight. History Literary close reading and commentaries have extensive precedent in the exegesis of religious texts, and more broadly, hermeneutics of ancient works. For example, Pazand, a genre of middle Persian literature, refers to the ''Zend'' (literally: 'commentary'/'translation') texts that offer explanation and close reading of the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. The scriptural commentaries of the Talmu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Pappus Of Alexandria
Pappus of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Πάππος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; AD) was one of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity known for his ''Synagoge'' (Συναγωγή) or ''Collection'' (), and for Pappus's hexagon theorem in projective geometry. Nothing is known of his life, other than what can be found in his own writings: that he had a son named Hermodorus, and was a teacher in Alexandria.Pierre Dedron, J. Itard (1959) ''Mathematics And Mathematicians'', Vol. 1, p. 149 (trans. Judith V. Field) (Transworld Student Library, 1974) ''Collection'', his best-known work, is a compendium of mathematics in eight volumes, the bulk of which survives. It covers a wide range of topics, including geometry, recreational mathematics, doubling the cube, polygons and polyhedra. Context Pappus was active in the 4th century AD. In a period of general stagnation in mathematical studies, he stands out as a remarkable exception. "How far he was above his contemporaries, how lit ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Aristaeus The Elder
Aristaeus the Elder ( grc-gre, Ἀρισταῖος ὁ Πρεσβύτερος; 370 – 300 BC) was a Greek mathematician who worked on conic sections. He was a contemporary of Euclid. Life Only little is known of his life. The mathematician Pappus of Alexandria refers to him as Aristaeus the Elder. Pappus gave Aristaeus great credit for a work entitled ''Five Books concerning Solid Loci'' which was used by Pappus but has been lost. He may have also authored the book ''Concerning the Comparison of Five Regular Solids''. This book has also been lost; it is known through a reference by the Greek mathematician Hypsicles. Heath 1921 notes, "Hypsicles Hypsicles ( grc-gre, Ὑψικλῆς; c. 190 – c. 120 BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer known for authoring ''On Ascensions'' (Ἀναφορικός) and the Book XIV of Euclid's ''Elements''. Hypsicles lived in Alexandria. ... (who lived in Alexandria) says also that Aristaeus, in a work entitled ''Comparison o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Hippias
Hippias of Elis (; el, Ἱππίας ὁ Ἠλεῖος; late 5th century BC) was a Greek sophist, and a contemporary of Socrates. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured on poetry, grammar, history, politics, mathematics, and much else. Most of our knowledge of him is derived from Plato, who characterizes him as vain and arrogant. Life Hippias was born at Elis in the mid 5th-century BC (c. 460 BC) and was thus a younger contemporary of Protagoras and Socrates. He lived at least as late as Socrates (399 BC). He was a disciple of Hegesidamus. Owing to his talent and skill, his fellow-citizens availed themselves of his services in political matters, and in a diplomatic mission to Sparta. But he was in every respect like the other sophists of the time: he travelled about in various towns and districts of Greece for the purpose of teaching and public speaking. The two dialogues of Plato, the ''Hipp ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ptolemy III Euergetes
, predecessor = Ptolemy II , successor = Ptolemy IV , nebty = ''ḳn nḏtj-nṯrw jnb-mnḫ-n-tꜢmrj''''Qen nedjtinetjeru inebmenekhentamery''The brave one who has protected the gods, a potent wall for The Beloved Land , nebty_hiero = q*nw:n:D40-Aa27-nw:t-Z3-nTr-O36-mnx-n:N17:U7-r:O49*O5 , horus = ''ḥkn-nṯrw-rmṯ-ḥr.f''''Khekenetjeruremetj-heref''The one over whom gods and people have rejoiced Second Horus name:''ḥkn-nṯrw-rmṯ-ḥr.f m-šsp.f-nsyt-m-Ꜥ-jt.f''''Hekenetjeruremetj-heref emshesepefnesytemaitef''The one over whom gods and people have rejoiced when he has received the kingship from his father's hand , golden = ''wr-pḥtj jrj-Ꜣḫt nb-ḥꜢbw-sd-mi-ptḥ-tꜢ-ṯnn jty-mi-rꜤ''''Werpehty iryakhut nebkhabusedmiptah-tatenen itymire''Whose might is great, doing that which is beneficial,Lord of the years of Jubilee like Ptah Ta-Tjenen, a ruler like Ra , golden_hiero= wr:r-F9*F9:ir-Z3*Ax*x:nb-O23-Z3-p:t-H-C19-C18-mi-i-U33-i-i- ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; grc-gre, Ἐρατοσθένης ;  – ) was a Greek polymath: a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria. His work is comparable to what is now known as the study of geography, and he introduced some of the terminology still used today. He is best known for being the first person known to calculate the circumference of the Earth, which he did by using the extensive survey results he could access in his role at the Library; his calculation was remarkably accurate. He was also the first to calculate Earth's axial tilt, which has also proved to have remarkable accuracy. He created the first global projection of the world, incorporating parallels and meridians based on the available geographic knowledge of his era. Eratosthenes was the founder of scientific chronology; he used Egyptian and Persian records to estimate the dates of the main ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]