The Ancient Greeks laid foundations for the Western civilizations in the fields of math and science. Euclid, a Greek mathematician known as the “Father of Geometry,” is arguably the most prominent mind of the Greco-Roman time, best known for his composition in the area of geometry, the Elements. (Document 5) To this day, Euclid’s work is still taught in schools worldwide.
Archimedes is the most impactful and important mathematical genius that ever existed in humankind. Born in 287 BC in Syracuse, Italy, Archimedes is the son of the astronomer Phidias. Archimedes is most known for his accomplishments in mechanics and pi. Archimedes was instrumental in inventing many mechanical tools which have affected our history and the modern day world.
He found the first “reliable figure” for π(pi) (Source A). In ancient Greece, the crude number system was very inefficient, and Archimedes made it easier to understand and count to higher numbers (Source B). Finally, he used the first known form of calculus while studying curved surfaces under Euclid, not to be later worked on for 2,000 years by Isaac Newton (Source A).
Some of these things are geometry, trigonometry, and the Thales intercept theorem. Trigonometry was invented by Hipparchus, geometry was invented by Euclid, and the inventor of the intercept theorem was obviously Thales. They did even more than this by improving methods in math. They also made one of the most important numbers in the world! This was known as pi, the 16th letter in the Greek alphabet.
For example, he produced a reliable and logical process to discover prime numbers, called the Sieve of Eratosthenes. What he is most famous for, however, is being able to calculate the circumference of the Earth almost exactly. Eratosthenes noticed that on the summer solstice in Syene, the sun's rays shown straight down because he saw that in a deep well, the sun's rays reached the very bottom, and did not cast a shadow on the sides. He then placed a pole in Alexandria on the summer solstice and he observed that it did cast a shadow. Knowing that the Earth was a sphere and the distance between the two cities, he could calculate the circumference of the Earth.
Eratosthenes was a very important figure in geometry, in this paper I will talk about some of his achievements and discoveries, as well as personal facts about his life. Eratosthenes was born in the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya in 276 BC he died in 194 BC in Alexandria, Egypt. He never married and had no family other than his parents Eratosthenes studied in Athens as a young man and made a good name for himself while he was there he later moved to alexandria egypt where he became the head librarian there. One of Eratosthenes major achievements is the creation of a sieve that determines prime numbers up to any given limit.
Eudoxus proved many of the theroms explained in Euclid's Elements. He also developed the earliest techniques of the infinitesimal calculus; Archimedes gives Eudoxus credit for inventing a principle eventually called the Axiom of Archimedes: it avoids Zeno's paradoxes by, in effect, forbidding infinities and infinitesimals.
The world knows who puts the marvelous in math, and this great “mathematician” is known as Pythagoras. Pythagoras is a man who lived a long time ago, and he had outstanding abilities in mathematics. Pythagoras lived from about 569 BCE- 500 BCE and, he contributed to many of the rules in math known today in the short period of time he was alive. He realized his love for math and had so many great mathematical ideas, so he created a brotherhood that enjoyed math as much as he did. He is greatly respected throughout the world for his contributions to many subjects such as Anatomy and Engineering.
C2. He believed that this expression will concluded a right triangle, he was right. Third, Archimedes also study physics. He found new physic laws and why things sink in water, lever systems, and water screws. Fourth, Aristarchus was a mathematician and astronomer.
Archimedes was an Ancient Greek mathematician, engineer, astronomer, physicist, and inventor. Archimedes was born in the port of Syracuse, Sicily in the colony of Magna Graecia (Which was in ancient greece) in the year 287 B.C. Which was also when the romans were in war with Pyrrhus of Epirus. Archimedes was born to astronomer Phidias. Not much is known about his father and his name and profession is known because it was mentioned in one of archimedes’ works “The Sand Reckoner”.
He was born 287 BC, and made great mathematical, and scientific discoveries. His name is Archimedes. Archimedes was a hero, who history viewed as a great inventor, had a unique way of thinking, and influenced powerful minds like Leonardo da Vinci. Archimedes left behind many scrolls of his works. Some of his works survived through time, and some did not.
Hypatia Hypatia was born in 355 C.E. she was the daughter of a famous mathematician and astronomer and philosopher named the Theon of Alexandria. He was famously remembered for two things, playing a role in preserving Euclid’s elements and commenting on Ptolemy’s Algemist and Handy tables. Hypatia’s father’s accomplishments were a big inspiration to her and she wanted to follow in Theon’s footsteps, so she studied hard to become the first female mathematician/astronomer just like her father. She commented on Apollo’s geometry and Diophantus’ number theory.
One of the main points of ancient Greek philosophy was the role of reason and inquiry. Emphasizing logic and defending the idea of impartial, rational observation of the natural world, the Greeks made significant contributions to mathematics and science. We owe our basic ideas about geometry and the concept of mathematical proofs to ancient Greek mathematicians such as Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes. (Khan academy,
Biography of Pythagoras Pythagoras’ experiences, education, and travels influenced his thinking that lead to the development of his theorem. Pythagoras is a famous mathematician and philosopher best known for his work on the theorem that is named after him called the Pythagorean theorem. According to the theorem, “for any right angle, the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two shorter sides equals the square of the length of the longest side (Harkins 35). Pythagoras may not have invented this famous mathematical theorem, but he was the first person to prove it in a scientific way (35). Therefore, Pythagoras shouldn’t be known for just his famous theorem because he also did many other things in his lifetime.
The Greeks were also the first to pull away from just seeing math as a means to solve problems but incorporated there study of philosophy into it and began work in the realm of pure mathematics and believed that all mathematical knowledge could be derived from reasoning and deduction. Also unlike the Babylonians, they based their number system around a much more practical and familiar system of numbers: numbers with a base of 5's and 10's. Much of Greek mathematics was centered around geometry. one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece ; Thales, who lived on the Ionian coast of Asian Minor in the first half of the 6th Century BC, was considered to have been the first to put fourth guidelines for the abstract development of geometry, although what we know of his work now seems quite elementary (such as right triangles). One of the more significant contributors to modern geometry and mathematics in general was Pythagoras, although he didn't necessarily create the theorem he was credited for (that should have gone to the Babylonians), he further developed in and made several other major contributions.
