'If one would understand the Greek genius fully, it would be a good plan to begin with their geometry.' As early as the sixth century BCE, Thales of Miletus used geometrical principles to calculate distance and height. Within a few hundred years, Euclid had produced his seminal Elements, which was still used as a textbook when this two-volume work was first published in 1921. A distinguished civil servant as well as an expert on ancient Greek mathematics, Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861 1940) includes here sufficient detail for a modern mathematician to grasp ancient methodology, alongside...
'If one would understand the Greek genius fully, it would be a good plan to begin with their geometry.' As early as the sixth century BCE, Thales of M...
'If one would understand the Greek genius fully, it would be a good plan to begin with their geometry.' As early as the sixth century BCE, Thales of Miletus used geometrical principles to calculate distance and height. Within a few hundred years, Euclid had produced his seminal Elements, which was still used as a textbook when this two-volume work was first published in 1921. A distinguished civil servant as well as an expert on ancient Greek mathematics, Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861 1940) includes here sufficient detail for a modern mathematician to grasp ancient methodology, alongside...
'If one would understand the Greek genius fully, it would be a good plan to begin with their geometry.' As early as the sixth century BCE, Thales of M...
Active in Alexandria in the third century BCE, Apollonius of Perga ranks as one of the greatest Greek geometers. Building on foundations laid by Euclid, he is famous for defining the parabola, hyperbola and ellipse in his major treatise on conic sections. The dense nature of its text, however, made it inaccessible to most readers. When it was originally published in 1896 by the civil servant and classical scholar Thomas Little Heath (1861 1940), the present work was the first English translation and, more importantly, the first serious effort to standardise the terminology and notation. Along...
Active in Alexandria in the third century BCE, Apollonius of Perga ranks as one of the greatest Greek geometers. Building on foundations laid by Eucli...
The Greek mathematician Diophantos of Alexandria lived during the third century CE. Apart from his age (he reached eighty-four), very little else is known about his life. Even the exact form of his name is uncertain, and only a few incomplete manuscripts of his greatest work, Arithmetica, have survived. In this impressive scholarly investigation, first published in 1885, Thomas Little Heath (1861 1940) meticulously presents what can be gleaned from Greek, Latin and Arabic sources, and guides the reader through the algebraist's idiosyncratic style of mathematics, discussing his notation and...
The Greek mathematician Diophantos of Alexandria lived during the third century CE. Apart from his age (he reached eighty-four), very little else is k...
