Leodamas of
Thasos
Thasos or Thassos ( el, Θάσος, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area.
The island has an area of and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate r ...
( grc-gre, Λεωδάμας ὁ Θάσιος, c. 380 BC) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
and a contemporary of
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
, about whom little is known.
There are two references to Leodamas in
Proclus's ''Commentary on Euclid'':
At this time lato's timealso lived Leodamas of Thasos, Archytas of Tarentum
Archytas (; el, Ἀρχύτας; 435/410–360/350 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. He was a scientist of the Pythagorean school and famous for being the reputed found ...
, and Theaetetus of Athens, by whom the theorems f geometrywere increased in number and brought into a more scientific arrangement. Younger than Leodamas was Neoclides and his pupil Leon
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
, who added many discoveries.
Plato, it is said, taught this method nalysisto Leodamas, who is also reported to have made many discoveries in geometry by means of it.
and one in
Diogenes Laërtius' ''
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'', Book 3 (Plato):
He lato
Lato ( grc, Λατώ, Latṓ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the village of Kritsa.
History
The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay betw ...
was the first to explain to Leodamas of Thasos the method of solving problems by analysis.
Notes
5th-century BC births
4th-century BC deaths
4th-century BC Greek people
Ancient Greek mathematicians
Ancient Thasians
4th-century BC mathematicians
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