Sunday, May 11, 2014

Greek Mathematics (Part 1)


Is the study of math history interesting?  It is when you start digging into it.  I was looking for sources of information to explain Euclid's contributions to the world of mathematics.  I stumbled upon these YouTube videos, in the process, and found them to be very interesting.  Known as a scholar, thinker, and the  Father of Geometry, Euclid wrote the book of Elements.   In addition to Euclid's own theories, Elements included work from mathematicians Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Theaetetus, and Eudoxus, spanning the time period 600 BC - 300 BC.  Elements is said to be the 2nd most published work (2nd only to the Bible).  Each of the 13 books of Elements focuses on different mathematical concepts.  The first publication was printed in Latin in the year 1482, with the first English version printed in the year 1570.  Did you know that one published version of Elements references 16 books,  rather than 13?  It was fascinating to learn how Euclid connected the works of so many brilliant mathematicians, including himself. 

1 comment:

  1. clear, coherent: +
    complete, content: for sharing a resource like this, you could write a review of it, think about potential uses for it, or synthesize the information from the presenter.
    consolidated: then I think you'd want to summarize by what you got out of it. A lot like the couple sentences you shared with me in class.

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