Allen, Donald - The Origin of Greek Mathematics

The Origins of Greek Mathematics1
Though the Greeks certainly borrowed from other civilizations, they built a culture and civilization on their own which is The most impressive of all civilizations, The most influential in Western culture, The most decisive in founding mathematics as we know it. The impact of Greece is typified by the hyperbole of Sir Henry Main: Except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin.2 Including the adoption of Egyptian and other earlier cultures by the Greeks, we find their patrimony in all phases of modern life. Handicrafts, mining techniques, engineering, trade, governmental regulation of commerce and more have all come down to use from Rome and from Rome through Greece. Especially, our democrasies and dictatorships go back to Greek exemplars, as well do our schools and universities, our sports, our games. And there is more. Our literature and literary genres, our alphabet, our music, our sculpture, and most particularly our mathematics all exist as facets of
1 2000, c 2 Rede
G. Donald Allen Lecture for 1875, in J.A. Symonds, Studies of Greek Poets, London, 1920.
Origins of Greek Mathematics
the Greek heritage. The detailed study of Greek mathematics reveals much about modern mathematics, if not the modern directions, then the logic and methods. The best estimate is that the Greek civilization dates back to 2800 BCE just about the time of the construction of the great pyramids in Egypt. The Greeks settled in Asia Minor, possibly their original home, in the area of modern Greece, and in southern Italy, Sicily, Crete, Rhodes, Delos, and North Africa. About 775 BCE they changed from a hieroglyphic writing to the Phoenician alphabet. This allowed them to become more literate, or at least more facile in their ability to express conceptual thought. The ancient Greek civilization lasted until about 600 BCE Originally, the Egyptian and Babylonian influence was greatest in Miletus, a city of Ionia in Asia Minor and the birthplace of Greek philosophy, mathematics and science. From the viewpoint of its mathematics, it is best to distinguish between the two periods: the classical period from about 600 BCE to 300 BCE and the Alexandrian or Hellenistic period from 300 BCE to 300 A.D. Indeed, from about 350 BCE the center of mathematics moved from Athens to Alexandria (in Egypt), the city built by Ptolemy I, a Macedonian general in the army of Alexander the Great (358 -323 BCE). It remained a center of mathematics for most of the next millennium, until the library was sacked by the Muslims in about 700 A.D.
The Sources of Greek Mathematics
In actual fact, our direct knowledge of Greek mathematics is less reliable than that of the older Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics, because none of the original manuscripts are extant. There are two sources: Byzantine Greek codices (manuscript books) written 500-1500 years after the Greek works were composed. Arabic translations of Greek works and Latin translations of the Arabic versions. (Were there changes to the originals?)
Moreover, we do not know even if these works were made from the originals. For example, Heron made a number of changes in Euclids Elements, adding new cases, providing different proofs and converses. Likewise for Theon of Alexandria (400 A. D.). The Greeks wrote histories of Mathematics: Eudemus (4th century BCE), a member of Aristotles school wrote histories3 of arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (lost), Theophrastus (c. 372 - c. 287 BCE) wrote a history of physics (lost). Pappus (late 3rd century CE) wrote the Mathematical Collection, an account of classical mathematics from Euclid to Ptolemy (extant). Pappus wrote Treasury of Analysis, a collection of the Greek works themselves (lost). Proclus (410-485 CE) wrote the Commentary, treating Book I of Euclid and contains quotations due to Eudemus (extant). various fragments of others.
The Major Schools of Greek Mathematics
The Classical Greek mathematics can be neatly divided in to several schools, which represent a philosophy and a style of mathematics. Culminating with The Elements of Euclid, each contributed in a real way important facets to that monumental work. In some cases the influence was much broader. We begin with the Ionian School. 2.1 The Ionian School
The Ionian School was founded by Thales (c. 643 - c. 546 BCE). Students included Anaximander4 (c. 610 - c. 547 BCE) and
3 Here the most remarkable fact must be that knowledge at that time must have been suciently broad and extensive to warrant histories. 4 Anaximander further developed the air, water, re theory as the original and primary form of the body, arguing that it was unnecessary to x upon any one of them. He preferred
Anaximenes (c. 550 - c. 480 BCE), actually a student of Anaximander. He regarded air as the origin and used the term air as god. Thales is the first of those to write on physics physiologia, which was on the principles of being and developing in things. His work was enthusiastically advanced by his student Anaximander. Exploring the origins of the universe, Axaximander wrote that the first principle was a vast Indefinite-Infinite (apeiron), a boundless mass possessing no specific qualities. By inherent forces, it gradually developed into the universe. In his system, the animate and eternal but impersonal Infinite is the only God, and is unvarying and everlasting. Thales is sometimes credited with having given the first deductive proofs. He is credited with five basic theorems in plane geometry, one being that the every triangle inscribed in a semicircle is a right triangle. Another result, that the diameter bisects a circle appears in The Elements as a definition. Therefore, it is doubtful that proofs provided by Thales match the rigor of logic based on the principles set out by Aristotle and climaxed in The Elements. Thales is also credited with a number of remarkable achievements, from astronomy to mensuration to business acumen, that will be taken up another chapter. The importance of the Ionian School for philosophy and the philosophy of science is without dispute.
2.2
The Pythagorean School
The Pythagorean School was founded by Pythagoras in about 455 BCE More on this later. A brief list of Pythagorean contributions includes: 1. Philosophy. 2. The study of proportion. 3. The study of plane and solid geometry. the boundless as the source and destiny of all things.
Origins of Greek Mathematics 4. Number theory. 5. The theory of proof. 6. The discovery of incommensurables.5
For another example, Hippocrates of Chios (late 5th century BCE), computed the quadrature of certain lunes. This, by the way, is the first correct proof of the area of a curvilinear figure, next to the circle, though the issue is technical. He also was able to duplicate the cube by finding two mean proportionals. That is, take a = 1 and b = 2 in equation of two mean proportionals a : x = x : y = y : b. Solve for x to get x = 3 2.)
2.3
The Eleatic School
The Eleatic School from the southern Italian city of Elea was founded by Xenophanes of Colophon, but its chief tenets appear first in Parmenides, the second leader of the school. Melissus was the third and last leader of the school. Zeno of Elea (c. 495 - c. 430 BCE), son of Teleutagoras and pupil and friend of Parmenides, no doubt strongly influenced the school. Called by Aristotle the inventor of dialectic, he is universally known for his four paradoxes. These, while perplexing generations of thinkers, contributed substantially to the development of logical and mathematical rigor. They were regarded as insoluble until the development of precise concepts of continuity and infinity. It remains controversial that Zeno was arguing against the Pythagoreans who believed in a plurality composed of numbers that were thought of as extended units. The fact is that the logical problems which his paradoxes raise about a mathematical continuum are serious, fundamental, and were inadequately solved by Aristotle. Zeno made use of three premises: 1. Any unit has magnitude 2. That it is infinitely divisible 3. That it is indivisible.
5 The discovery of incommensurables brought to a fore one of the principle diculties in all of mathematics the nature of innity.
Yet he incorporated arguments for each. In his hands, he had a very powerful complex argument in the form of a dilemma, one horn of which supposed indivisibility, the other infinite divisibility, both leading to a contradiction of the original hypothesis who brought to the fore the contradictions between the discrete and the continuous, the decomposable and indecomposable. Zenos Paradoxes Zeno constructed his paradoxes to illustrate that current notions of motion are unclear, that whether one viewed time or space as continuous or discrete, there are contradictions. Paradoxes such as these arose because mankind was attempting to rationally understand the notions of infinity for the first time. The confusion centers around what happens when the logic of the finite (discrete) is used to treat the infinite (infinitesimal) and conversely, when the infinite is perceived within the discrete logical framework. They are Dichotomy. To get to a fixed point one must cover the halfway mark, and then the halfway mark of what remains, etc. Achilles. Essentially the same for a moving point. Arrow. An object in flight occupies a space equal to itself but that which occupies a space equal to itself is not in motion. Stade. Suppose there is a smallest instant of time. Then time must be further divisible!
A B
1 1 2 1
2 3 2
3 4 3
A 1 B 1
2 2 1
3 3 2
4 4 3 4
4
Stade
Now, the idea is this: if there is a smallest instant of time and if the farthest that a block can move in that instant is the length of one block, then if we move the set B to the right that length in the smallest instant and the set C to the left in that instant, then the net shift of the sets B and C is two blocks. Thus there must be a smaller instant
of time when the relative shift is just one block. Note here the use of relative motion. Aristotle gave these paradoxes considerable time, in his effort to resolve them. His resolutions are unsatisfactory from a modern viewpoint. However, even today the paradoxes puzzle and confound anyone uninitiated in the ways of limits, continuity, and infinity. Democritus of Abdera (ca. 460-370 BCE) should also be included with the Eleatics. One of a half a dozen great figures of this era, he was renown for many different abilities. For example, he was a proponent of the materialistic atomic doctrine. He wrote books on numbers, geometry, tangencies, and irrationals. (His work in geometry was said to be significant.) To demonstrate the clarity of thinking at the time, both he and Protagoras puzzled over whether the tangent to a circle meets it at a point or a line. By the time of Euclid, this subtle point was eventually settled in favor of a point, but it is effectively a definition not a proposition. In addition, he discovered6 that the volumes of a cone and a pyramid are 1/3 the volumes of the respective cylinder and prism.
2.4
The Sophist School
The Sophist School (e 480 BCE) was centered in Athens, just after the final defeat of the Persians.7 There were many sophists and for many years, say until 380 BCE, they were the only source of higher education in the more advanced Greek cities. Of course such services were provided for money. Their influence waned as the philosophic schools, such as Platos academy, grew in prestige. Chief among the sophists were most important were Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon, Prodicus, and Thrasymachus. In some regards Socrates must be considered among them, or at least a special category of one among them. Plato emphasized, however, that Socrates never accepted money for knowledge. Greece
6 as attested by Archimedes. However, he did not rigorously prove these results. Recall that the formula for the volume pyramid was known to the Egyptians and the Babylonians. 7 This was the time of Pericles. Athens became a rich trading center with a true democratic tradition. All citizens met annually to discuss the current aairs of state and to vote for leaders. Ionians and Pythagoreans were attracted to Athens. This was also the time of the conquest of Athens by Sparta.
Because Athens was a democrasy, young men needed instruction in politics. Sophists provided that instruction, teaching men how to speak and what arguments to use in public debate. A Sophistic education became popular among older families and the upwardly mobile without families. Among the instruction given were ways to argue against traditional values, which Plato thought unfair and unjustified. However, he learned that even to defend traditional values, one must use a reasoned argument, not appeals to tradition and unreflecting faith. In the Sophist school, emphasis was given to abstract reasoning and to the goal of using reason to understand the universe. This school had amongst its chief pursuits the use of mathematics to understand the function of the universe. At this time many efforts were made to solve the three great problems of antiquity: doubling the cube, squaring the circle, and trisecting an angle with just a straight edge and compass. One member of this school who ventured a solution to the angle trisection problem,was the mathematician Hippias of Elis (460 - 400 BCE).8 For example, the Sophists Antiphon of Rhamnos (c. 480 - 411 BCE) and Bryson of Heraclea (b. 450?) considered the circle squaring problem by comparing the circle to polygons inscribed within it. Another sophist, Hippias of Elis lectured widely on mathematics and as well on poetry, grammar, history, politics, archaeology, and astronomy. He was a prolific writer, producing elegies, tragedies, and technical treatises in prose. His work on Homer was considered excellent. Nothing of his remains except a few fragments. According to Plato, Hippias whom he depicted in his dialogue Protagoras, was a vain and boastful man (ca. 460 BCE) who discovered the trisectrix. The trisectrix, also known as the quadratrix, was a mechanically generated curve which he showed could be used to trisect any angle. The Trisectrix. Here is how to construct the trisectrix. A rotating arm begins at the vertical position and rotates clockwise as a constant rate to the 3 oclock position. A horizontal bar falls from the top (12 oclock position) to the x-axis at a constant rate, in the same time. The locus of points where the horizontal bar intersects the rotating arm traces the trisectrix. (In the figure below, you may assume that radian measure is used with a (quarter) circle of radius . Thus the time axis ranges in 2 [0, ].) 2
8a
city in the Peloponnesus
Bar Rotating Arm
Trisectrix
2.5
The Platonic School
The Platonic School, the most famous of all was founded by Plato (427 - 347 BCE) in 387 BCE in Athens as an institute for the pursuit of philosophical and scientific teaching and research. Plato, though not a mathematician, encouraged research in mathematics. Pythagorean forerunners of the school, Theodorus9 of Cyrene and Archytas10 of Tarentum, through their teachings, produced a strong Pythagorean influence in the entire Platonic school. Little is known of Platos personality and little can be inferred from his writing. Said Aristotle, certainly his most able and famous student, Plato is a man whom it is blasphemy in the base even to praise. This meant that even those of base standing in society should not mention his name, so noble was he. Much of the most significant mathematical work of the 4th century was accomplished by colleagues or pupils of
proved the incommensurability of 3, 5, 7, ..., 17. solved the duplication of the cube problem at the intersection of a cone, a torus, and a cylinder.
9 Theodorus 10 Archytas
10
Plato. Members of the school included Menaechmus11 and his brother Dinostratus12 and Theaetetus13 (c. 415-369 BCE) According to Proclus, Menaechmus was one of those who made the whole of geometry more perfect. We know little of the details. He is also attributed the quote to Alexander O King, for traveling over the country there are royal roads and roads for common citizens; but in geometry these is one road for all. This famous quotation, in slightly different forms, has been attributed to others, as well, notably Euclid. As the inventor of the conics Menaechmus no doubt was aware of many of the now familiar properties of conics, including asymptotes. He was also probably aware of the solution of the duplication of the cube problem by intersecting the parabola y 2 = 2ax and the hyperbola xy = a2 , for which the solu tion is x = a 3 2. For, solving both for x yields x 2 y /(2a) y3 y = = = = y 2 /(2a) a2 /y 2a3 3 2 a. and x = a2 /y
Another famous pupil/friend, Eudoxus of Cnidos removed his school from Cyzicus to Athens for the purpose of cooperating with Plato. During one of Platos absences Eudoxus apparently acted as the head of the Academy. The academy of Plato was much like a modern university. There were grounds, buildings, students, and formal course taught by Plato and his aides. During the classical period, mathematics and philosophy were favored. Plato was not a mathematician but was a strong advocate of all of mathematics. Plato believed that the perfect ideals of physical objects are the reality. The world of ideals and relationships among them is permanent, ageless, incorruptible, and universal. The Platonists are credited with discovery of two methods of proof, the
11 Menaechmus invented the conic sections. Only one branch of the hyperbola was recognized at this time. 12 Dinostratus showed how to square the circle using the trisectrix 13 Theaetetus proved that there are only ve regular solids: the tetrahedron (4 sides, triangles), cube (6 sides, squares, octahedron (8 sides, triangles), dodecahedron (12 sides, pentagons), and icosahedron (20 sides, hexagons). Theaetetus was a student of Theodorus
Origins of Greek Mathematics method of analysis14 and the reductio ad absurdum.15
11
Plato affirmed the deductive organization of knowledge, and was first to systematize the rules of rigorous demonstration. The academy was closed by the Christian emperor Justinian in A.D. 529 because it taught pagan and perverse learning.
2.6
The School of Eudoxus
The School of Eudoxus founded by Eudoxus (c. 408 BCE), the most famous of all the classical Greek mathematicians and second only to Archimedes. Eudoxus developed the theory of proportion, partly to account for and study the incommensurables (irrationals). He produced many theorems in plane geometry and furthered the logical organization of proof. He also introduced the notion of magnitude.
He gave the first rigorous proof on the quadrature of the circle. (Proposition. The areas of two circles are as the squares of their diameters. 16 )
14 where what is to be proved is regarded as known and the consequences deduced until a known truth or a contradiction is reached. A contradiction renders the proposition to be false. 15 where what is to be proved is taken and false and consequences are deduced until a contradiction is produced, thus proving the proposition. This, the indirect method, is also attributed to Hippocrates. 16 At this time there is still no apparent concept of a formula such as A = r 2 .
Origins of Greek Mathematics 2.7 The School of Aristotle
12
The School of Aristotle, called the Lyceum, founded by Aristotle (384322 BCE) followed the Platonic school. It had a garden, a lecture room, and an altar to the Muses. Of his character more is known than for others we have considered. He seems to have been wealthy with holdings from Stagira. Therefore, he had the leisure to study. He apparently used sums of money to purchase books. So many books did he read that Plato referred to him as the reader, indicating a bit of contempt or perhaps rivalry. While still a member of Platos academy, his early writings works were dialogues were concerned with thoughts of the next world and the worthlessness of this one, themes familiar to him from Platos writing (e.g. Phaedo). Anecdotes about him show him as a kindly and affectionate. They show hardly a trace of the self-importance that some scholars claim to detect in his works. His will has survived and exhibits the same kindly traits; he references a happy family life and takes solicitous care of his children, as well as his servants. His apparent joy of life is reflected in the literary On Philosophy, which was completed in about 348. Afterwards, he devoted his energies to research, teaching, and writing of technical treatises. After Platos death in about 348, his (Platos) nephew Speusippus was appointed head of the Academy. Shortly thereafter Aristotle left Athens, possibly as some claim because of not being appointed Platos successor. He travelled, with friend Xenocrates to Assus where he enjoyed the patronship of Hermeias of Atarneus, a Greek soldier of fortune. There he was a prinipal at the new Assus Academy. Here he wrote much including On Politics and On Kinship (now lost). After just three years at the Assus Academy, Aristotle moved to the island of Lesbos and settled in Mytilene, the capital city. With his friend Theophrastus he established a philosophical circle similar to the Athenian Academy. In late 343 at the age of 42, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedonia to his capital at Pella to tutor his 13-year-old son, Alexander. As the leading intellectual figure of the day, Aristotle was instructed to prepare Alexander for his future role as a military leader and king.
13
After three years in Pella, Aristotle returned to Stagira and remained there until 335, when at almost 50 years of age, he returned to Athens. There he opened his own academy, the Lyceum, a gymnasium attached to the temple of Apollo Lyceus. It was situated in a grove just outside Athens. It was a place frequented by teachers, including possibly Socrates. It was only after Aristotles death that the school, under Theophrastus, acquired extensive property. His instruction, given in the peripatos, or covered walkway, of the gymnasium, was the source of the namesake of Peripatetic.
In 323, with the death of Alexander, there was some anti-Macedonian sentiment throughout Athens. Well connected to the Macedonians through Alexander, Aristotle fled the city to his mothers estates in Chalcis on the island of Euboea where within a year at the age of 62 or 63 he died from a stomach illness. Referring obviously to Socrates, it was reported that he left Athens in order to save the Athenians from sinning twice against philosophy. Aristotles writings fall into two groups. The first group is comprised of those works published by Aristotle and now lost. The second group consists of those not published nor intended for publication by Aristotle but collected and preserved by others. Finally, the writings that have survived, termed acroamatic, or treatises, were intended for use in Aristotles school and were written in a concise and individualistic style. In later antiquity Aristotles collected writings totalled hundreds of rolls. Today the surviving 30 works fill more than 2,000 printed pages. Ancient catalogs list more than 170 separate works by Aristotle. Aristotle set the philosophy of physics, mathematics, and reality on a foundations that would carry it to modern times. He viewed the sciences as being of three types theoretical (math physics, logic and metaphysics), productive (the arts), and the practical (ethics, politics).
Origins of Greek Mathematics He contributed little to mathematics however, ...his views on the nature of mathematics and its relations to the physical world were highly influential. Whereas Plato believed that there was an independent, eternally existing world of ideas which constituted the reality of the universe and that mathematical concepts were part of this world,17 Aristotle favored concrete matter or substance18 .
14
Aristotle regards the notion of definition19 as a significant aspect of argument. He required that a definition may not reference prior objects. The following definition, A point is that which has no part, which is the first definition from the first book of Euclids Elements20 , would be unacceptable. Aristotle also treats the basic principles of mathematics, distinguishing between axioms and postulates. Axioms include the laws of logic, the law of contradiction, etc.
The postulates need not be self-evident, but their truth must be sustained by the results derived from them. Euclid uses this distinction. Aristotle explored the relation of the point to the line again the problem of the indecomposable and decomposable. Aristotle makes the distinction between potential infinity and actual infinity21 . He states only the former actually exists, in all regards. Aristotle is credited with the invention of logic, through the syllogism. He cites two laws studied by every student. 1. The law of contradiction. (A statement may not be T and F)
is still an issue of debate and contention Kline, Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times 19 and hence also undefined terms 20 This self-referential use of language in denintion and statement is the logicians bane of language, having caused paradoxes and other problems well into the 20th century 21 This is still a problem today.
18 Morris 17 This
15
2. The law of the excluded middle. (A statement must be T or F, there is no other alternative.) His logic remained unchallenged until the 19th century. Even Aristotle regarded logic as an independent subject that should precede science and mathematics.
Aristotles influence has been immeasurably vast.
Exercises 1. Show how to trisect a line segment. 2. Show how to trisect an angle using the trisectrix. (Hint. First trisect the line segement projected to the right margin by the angle to the angle that is to be trisected.)
Thales of Miletus1
1 Thales Life and Accomplishments
Little is known of Thales. Born about 624 BC in Miletus, Asia Minor (now Turkey), he was the son of Examyes and Cleobuline. He died about 546 BC in Miletos, Turkey.
The bust shown above is in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, but is not contemporary with Thales. Indeed, though there are statues and other images of significant people of the time, there is little assurance of their authenticity. Some impression and highlights of his life and work follow:
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Thales
Thales of Miletus was the first known Greek philosopher, scientist and mathematician. Some consider him the teacher of Pythagoras, though it may be only be that he advised Pythagoras to travel to Egypt and Chaldea. From Eudemus of Rhodes (fl ca. 320 B.C) we know that he studied in Egypt and brought these teachings to Greece. He is unanimously ascribed to have introduced the mathematical and astronomical sciences into Greece. He is unanimously regarded as having been unusally cleverby general agreement the first of the Seven Wise Men2 , a pupil of the Egyptians and the Chaldeans. None of his writing survives and no contemporary sources exist; thus, his achievements are difficult to assess, particularly his philosophy and mathematical discoveries. Indeed, many mathematical discoveries of this early period have been attributed to others, often centuries later. In addition one must consider the ancient practice of crediting particular discoveries to men with a reputation for wisdom. This is no doubt certainly true in Pythagoras case. There is, of course, the story, related by Aristotle, of his successful speculation in olive oil presses after he had concluded there would be a bountiful harvest as testament to his practical business acumen. The Greek writer Xenophanes claimed that he predicted an eclipse of the Sun on May 28, 585 BC, startling all of Ionia and thereby stopping the battle between the Lydian Alyattes and the Median Cyaxares. Modern scholars, in further analysis, believe this story is apocryphal, that he could not have had the knowledge to predict an eclipse so accurately. Herodotus spoke of his foretelling the year only. However, the fact that the eclipse was nearly total and occurred during this significant battle possibly contributed to his reputation as an astronomer. It is very likely he used Babyolonian astronomy in his prediction. He is also said to have used his knowledge of geometry to measure the Egyptian pyramids, though it is equally likely he brought this knowledge back from his studies in Egypt. The reputed method
2 Besides Thales, the other of the Seven Wise Men were Bias of Priene, Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus of Lindus, Pittacus of Mytilene, Solon of Athens and Periander of Corinth
Thales
was to use their shadows and therefore proportionality of the sides of similar triangles. He is credited with five theorems of elementary geometry. This will form the center of our study. Being asked what was very difficult, he answered, in a famous aphorism, To Know Thyself. Asked what was very easy, he answered, To give advice. To the question, what/who is God?, he answered, That which has no beginning or no end. (The infinite!?!) Asked how men might live most virtuously, he answered, If we never do ourselves what we blame in others. According to Diogenes Laertius, Thales died while present as a spectator at a gymnastic contest, being worn out with heat and thirst and weakness, for he was very old. From W. K. C. Guthrie3 we have The achievement of Thales, has been represented by historians in two entirely different lights: on the one hand, as a marvelous anticipation of modern scientific thinking, and on the other as nothing but a transparent rationalization of a myth. According to Guthrie himself, one may say that ideas of Thales and other Milesians created a bridge between the two worldsthe world of myth and the world of the mind. Thales believed that the Earth is a flat disk that floats on an endless expanse of water and all things come to be from water. This comes to us from Aristotle who suggested that Thales was the first to suggest a single material substratum for the universe. But, more preciesly, Thales and the Milesians proceeded from the assumption of a fundamental unity of all material things that is to be found behind their apparent diversity. This is the first recorded monism, or monistic cosmology, in history. He also regards the world as alive and thus life and matter to be inseparable. Even plants he feels have a immortal soul. (This form of pantheism, present in the early stages of Greek philosophy, held that the
3 W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), p. 70.
Thales
divine is one of the elements in the world whose function is to animate the other elements that constitute the world is called hylozoism.) Perhaps the essense of this contribution is that it marks an awakening in mankind the desire to investigate the universe on a non-religious basis, to model the universe and to derive conclusions from the model. There would be many models considered, studies, and rejected before our contemporary one. So the new task of philosophers was to establish what exactly provided this unity: one said it was water; another, the Boundless; yet another, air. (The goal is, of course, the quest for rational understanding of the world. Answering The Big Questions is the most difficult.)) Thales is believed to have been the teacher of Anaximander; he is the first natural philosopher in the Ionian (Milesian) School. According Anaximander of Miletus (mid-6th century), the word apeiron meant unbounded, infinite, indefinite, or undefined. Originally used to reference the unlimited and that which preceded the separation into contrasting qualities, such as hot and cold, wet and dry, it thus represented the primitive unity of all phenomena. Thus, for the Greeks, the original chaos out of which the world was formed was apeiron. Evidence exists that he wrote treatises on geography, astronomy, and cosmology that survived for several centuries. He is also said to have made a map of the known world. A rationalist, he prized symmetry and introduced geometry and mathematical proportions into his efforts to map the heavens, a tradition that has continued throughout history. We may conclude that his theories departed from earlier, mystical models of the universe and anticipated the achievements of later astronomers. Continuing on a linear path from Thales, Anaximanders successor, Anaximenes of Miletus (second half of the 6th century), taught that air was the origin of all things. Anaximenes, supplementing the theories of Thales and Anaximander specified the way in which the other things arose out of the water or apeiron. He claimed that the other types of matter arose out of air by condensation and rarefaction. In this way, we see another building block in the development complete model, that of the explanation of phenomena, and this remained essentially the same through all of its transmutations.
Thales 2 Thales Mathematics
Thales is also said to have discovered a method of measuring the distance to a ship at sea. There are several theories that conjecture his explanation. The first is to use sightings on short and to construct a congruent triangle on shore and measure the unknown distance. This explanation would have little utility, because the time of measurement of a distant ship would be so long as not to be of use.
Ship
Shore
Using similarity, a bit of geometry known at the time and in particular to Thales if the pyramid story is anywhre near accurate, an alternate explanation uses two shore observation points, where the angles to the ship are measured. This information is given to the observatory where the actual ship-to-shore distance is determined by creating a triangle (CDE) similar to triangle ABS.
S
E Distance Proportional Distance
C D Observatory model
Shore observation points
The actual distance is computed by proportionality. That is Actual distance |AB| = Proportional distance |CD|
Thales
Five basic propositions with proofs4 of plane geometry are attributed to Thales. Proposition. A circle is bisected by any diameter.5 Proposition. The base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal. Proposition. The angles between two intersecting straight lines are equal. Proposition. Two triangles are congruent if they have two angles and the included side equal. Proposition. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle. On the next page we prove the last of these, referred to as Thales Theorem.
4 Exactly why Thales needed to prove theorems and propostions that the Egyptians and Babylonians accepted without justication is even now a subject of conjecture. Many standard philosophical explanations have been given. Clearly, with the new attempts to formulate a scientic model for the world, philosophers might be inclined to establish that existing truths t within its framework. Truths from geometry may have been the rst to fall under such analysis. 5 These propositions, particularly this one comes from Proclus. But we should be careful with what proof means here. Even Euclid states this as a fact, i.e. a postulate.
Thales Proposition. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.
Proof. From the picture below, note that / DEC is two right angles6 minus / ACE minus / ADE and because the triangles 4ACE and 4AED are isoceles this equals / AEC plus / DEA. Hence / ACE plus / ADE and therefore / DEC is one right angle. In the proof shown in the picture below, the same proof is given using angle notation.
E
A
+ = 180 2 + = 180 D 2 + = 180 2( + ) + + = 360 + = 90
Since there was no clear theory of angles at that time, the second version is probably not the proof furnished by Thales. As to the first version, the result indicates that Thales knew that the sum of the angles of a triangle equals two right angles. This was probably known. A simple indicator of why is shown in the illustration to the right. Consider the triangle 4ABC. Construct a line DE parallel to AB C through C. Given knowledge of the E D result about alternating interior angles formed by a transversal cutting two parallels, we have / BCE = / ABC and / BAC = / ACD. Therefore A B the results follows. Another indication proof shown below was furnished by Heath. One first constructs the inscribed triangle, then draws the other diagonal. It is then easy to show that the angles of the resulting quadrilateral are all equal.
6 Note, the modern way to state this is that the sum of the angles of a right triangle is 180o .
Thales
Proposition. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.
Alternate approach with the "Thales rectangle", as proposed by Heath. Preknowledge that the sum of the angles of a triangle is two right angles is not needed.
O
A D
After Thales, the torch of mathematical investication was passed to Pythagoras.
Additional References: 1. Apostle, H. G., Aristotles Philosphy of Mathematics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1952. 2. Dictionary of Scientific Biography 3. Encyclopaedia Britannica 4. Ueberweg, F., A History of Philosophy, from Thales to the Present Time (1972) (2 Volumes). 5. Guthrie,W. K. C., A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 1962. 6. Dicks, D. R., lassical Quarterly 9 (1959), 294-309. 7. Heath, Thomas L., A History of Greek Mathematics I, Oxford University Press, Oxford,1921.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans1

Historically, the name Pythagoras means much more than the familiar namesake of the famous theorem about right triangles. The philosophy of Pythagoras and his school has become a part of the very fiber of mathematics, physics, and even the western tradition of liberal education, no matter what the discipline.
The stamp above depicts a coin issued by Greece on August 20, 1955, to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the first school of philosophy by Pythagoras. Pythagorean philosophy was the prime source of inspiration for Plato and Aristotle whose influence on western thought is without question and is immeasurable.
1 G. c
Donald Allen, 1999
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 1 Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
Of his life, little is known. Pythagoras (fl 580-500, BC) was born in Samos on the western coast of what is now Turkey. He was reportedly the son of a substantial citizen, Mnesarchos. He met Thales, likely as a young man, who recommended he travel to Egypt. It seems certain that he gained much of his knowledge from the Egyptians, as had Thales before him. He had a reputation of having a wide range of knowledge over many subjects, though to one author as having little wisdom (Heraclitus) and to another as profoundly wise (Empedocles). Like Thales, there are no extant written works by Pythagoras or the Pythagoreans. Our knowledge about the Pythagoreans comes from others, including Aristotle, Theon of Smyrna, Plato, Herodotus, Philolaus of Tarentum, and others.
Samos Miletus
Cnidus
Pythagoras lived on Samos for many years under the rule of the tyrant Polycrates, who had a tendency to switch alliances in times of conflict which were frequent. Probably because of continual conflicts and strife in Samos, he settled in Croton, on the eastern coast of Italy, a place of relative peace and safety. Even so, just as he arrived
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans
in about 532 BCE, Croton lost a war to neighboring city Locri, but soon thereafter defeated utterly the luxurious city of Sybaris. This is where Pythagoras began his society. The Pythagorean School
The school of Pythagoras was every bit as much a religion as a school of mathematics. A rule of secrecy bound the members to the school, and oral communication was the rule. The Pythagoreans had numerous rules for everyday living. For example, here are a few of them: To abstain from beans.
Not to pick up what has fallen. Not to touch a white cock. . . . Do not look in a mirror beside a light. Vegetarianism was strictly practiced probably because Pythagoras preached the transmigration of souls2 . What is remarkable is that despite the lasting contributions of the Pythagoreans to philosophy and mathematics, the school of Pythagoras represents the mystic tradition in contrast with the scientific. Indeed, Pythagoras regarded himself as a mystic and even semi-divine. Said Pythagoras, There are men, gods, and men like Pythagoras. It is likely that Pythagoras was a charismatic, as well. Life in the Pythagorean society was more-or-less egalitarian. The Pythagorean school regarded men and women equally. Not to stir the fire with iron.
2 reincarnation
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans They enjoyed a common way of life. Property was communal.
Even mathematical discoveries were communal and by association attributed to Pythagoras himself even from the grave. Hence, exactly what Pythagoras personally discovered is difficult to ascertain. Even Aristotle and those of his time were unable to attribute direct contributions from Pythagoras, always referring to the Pythagoreans, or even the so-called Pythagoreans. Aristotle, in fact, wrote the book On the Pythagoreans which is now lost. The Pythagorean Philosophy The basis of the Pythagorean philosophy is simply stated: There are three kinds of men and three sorts of people that attend the Olympic Games. The lowest class is made up of those who come to buy and sell, the next above them are those who compete. Best of all, however, are those who come simply to look on. The greatest purification of all is, therefore, disinterested science, and it is the man who devotes himself to that, the true philosopher, who has most effectually released himself from the wheel of birth.3 The message of this passage is radically in conflict with modern values. We need only consider sports and politics. ? Is not reverence these days is bestowed only on the superstars? ? Are not there ubiquitous demands for accountability.
The gentleman4 , of this passage, has had a long run with this philosophy, because he was associated with the Greek genius, because
Early Greek Philosophy many such philosophers are icons of the western tradition? We can include Hume, Locke, Descartes, Fermat, Milton, Gthe, Thoreau. Compare these names to Napoleon, Nelo son, Bismark, Edison, Whitney, James Watt. You get a dierent feel.
3 Burnet, 4 How
the virtue of contemplation acquired theological endorsement, and because the ideal of disinterested truth dignified the academic life. The Pythagorean Philosophy ala Bertrand Russell From Bertrand Russell,5 , we have It is to this gentleman that we owe pure mathematics. The contemplative ideal since it led to pure mathematics was the source of a useful activity. This increased its prestige and gave it a success in theology, in ethics, and in philosophy. Mathematics, so honored, became the model for other sciences. Thought became superior to the senses; intuition became superior to observation. The combination of mathematics and theology began with Pythagoras. It characterized the religious philosophy in Greece, in the Middle ages, and down through Kant. In Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza and Kant there is a blending of religion and reason, of moral aspiration with logical admiration of what is timeless. Platonism was essentially Pythagoreanism. The whole concept of an eternal world revealed to intellect but not to the senses can be attributed from the teachings of Pythagoras. The Pythagorean School gained considerable influence in Croton and became politically active on the side of the aristocracy. Probably because of this, after a time the citizens turned against him and his followers, burning his house. Forced out, he moved to Metapontum, also in Southern Italy. Here he died at the age of eighty. His school lived on, alternating between decline and re-emergence, for several hundred years. Tradition holds that Pythagoras left no written works, but that his ideas were carried on by eager disciples.
5 A History of Western Philosophy. Russell was a logician, mathematician and philosopher from the rst half of the twentieth century. He is known for attempting to bring pure mathematics into the scope of symbolic logic and for discovering some profound paradoxes in set theory.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 3 Pythagorean Mathematics
What is known of the Pythagorean school is substantially from a book written by the Pythagorean, Philolaus (fl. c. 475 BCE) of Tarentum. However, according to the 3rd-century-AD Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, he was born at Croton. After the death of Pythagoras, dis sension was prevalent in Italian cities, Philolaus may have fled first to Lucania and then to Thebes, in Greece. Later, upon returning to Italy, he may have been a teacher of the Greek thinker Archytas. From his book Plato learned the philosophy of Pythagoras. The dictum of the Pythagorean school was All is number The origin of this model may have been in the study of the constellations, where each constellation possessed a certain number of stars and the geometrical figure which it forms. What this dictum meant was that all things of the universe had a numerical attribute that uniquely described them. Even stronger, it means that all things which can be known or even conceived have number. Stronger still, not only do all things possess numbers, but all things are numbers. As Aristotle observes, the Pythagoreans regarded that number is both the principle matter for things and for constituting their attributes and permanent states. There are of course logical problems, here. (Using a basis to describe the same basis is usually a risky venture.) That Pythagoras could accomplish this came in part from further discoveries such musical harmonics and knowledge about what are now called Pythagorean triples. This is somewhat different from the Ionian school, where the elemental force of nature was some physical quantity such as water or air. Here, we see a model of the universe with number as its base, a rather abstract philosophy. Even qualities, states, and other aspects of nature had descriptive numbers. For example, The number one : the number of reason.
The number two: the first even or female number, the number of opinion. The number three: the first true male number, the number of harmony.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans The number four: the number of justice or retribution. The number five: marriage. The number six: creation . . . The number ten: the tetractys, the number of the universe.
The Pythagoreans expended great effort to form the numbers from a single number, the Unit, (i.e. one). They treated the unit, which is a point without position, as a point, and a point as a unit having position. The unit was not originally considered a number, because a measure is not the things measured, but the measure of the One is the beginning of number.6 This view is reflected in Euclid7 where he refers to the multitude as being comprised of units, and a unit is that by virtue of which each of existing things is called one. The first definition of number is attributed to Thales, who defined it as a collection of units, clearly a derivate based on Egyptians arithmetic which was essentially grouping. Numerous attempts were made throughout Greek history to determine the root of numbers possessing some consistent and satisfying philosophical basis. This argument could certainly qualify as one of the earliest forms of the philosophy of mathematics. The greatest of the numbers, ten, was so named for several reasons. Certainly, it is the base of Egyptian and Greek counting. It also contains the ratios of musical harmonies: 2:1 for the octave, 3:2 for the fifth, and 4:3 for the fourth. We may also note the only regular figures known at that time were the equilateral triangle, square, and pentagon8 were also contained by within tetractys. Speusippus (d. 339 BCE) notes the geometrical connection. Dimension: One point: generator of dimensions (point). Two points: generator of a line of dimension one
Metaphysics Elements 8 Others such as the hexagon, octagon, etc. are easily constructed regular polygons with number of sides as multiples of these. The 15-gon, which is a multiple of three and ve sides is also constructible. These polygons and their side multiples by powers of two were all those known.
6 Aristotle, 7 The
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans Three points: generator of a triangle of dimension two Four points: generator of a tetrahedron, of dimension three.
The sum of these is ten and represents all dimensions. Note the abstraction of concept. This is quite an intellectual distance from fingers and toes. Classification of numbers. The distinction between even and odd numbers certainly dates to Pythagoras. From Philolaus, we learn that ...number is of two special kinds, odd and even, with a third, even-odd, arising from a mixture of the two; and of each kind there are many forms. And these, even and odd, correspond to the usual definitions, though expressed in unusual way9 . But even-odd means a product of two and odd number, though later it is an even time an odd number. Other subdivisions of even numbers10 are reported by Nicomachus (a neoPythagorean100 A.D.). even-even 2n
odd-even 2n+1 (2m + 1) Originally (our) number 2, the dyad, was not considered even, though Aristotle refers to it as the only even prime. This particular direction of mathematics, though it is based upon the earliest ideas of factoring, was eventually abandoned as not useful, though even and odd numbers and especially prime numbers play a major role in modern number theory. Prime or incomposite numbers and secondary or composite numbers are defined in Philolaus:
9 Nicomachus of Gerase ( 100 CE) gives as ancient the denition that an even number is that which can be divided in to two equal parts and into two unequal part (except two), but however divided the parts must be of the same type (i.e. both even or both odd). 10 Bear in mind that there is no zero extant at this time. Note, the experimentation with denition. The same goes on today. Denitions and directions of approach are in a continual ux, then and now.
even-odd 2(2m + 1)
A prime number is rectilinear, meaning that it can only be set out in one dimension. The number 2 was not originally regarded as a prime number, or even as a number at all. A composite number is that which is measured by (has a factor) some number. (Euclid) Two numbers are prime to one another or composite to one another if their greatest common divisor11 is one or greater than one, respectively. Again, as with even and odd numbers there were numerous alternative classifications, which also failed to survive as viable concepts.12 For prime numbers, we have from Euclid the following theorem, whose proof is considered by many mathematicians as the quintessentially most elegant of all mathematical proofs. Proposition. There are an infinite number of primes. Proof. (Euclid) Suppose that there exist only finitely many primes p1 < p2 < ... < pr . Let N = (p1 )(p2 )...(pr ) > 2. The integer N 1, being a product of primes, has a prime divisor pi in common with N ; so, pi divides N (N 1) = 1, which is absurd!
The search for primes goes on. Eratsothenes (276 B.C. - 197 B.C.)13 , who worked in Alexandria, devised a sieve for determining primes. This sieve is based on a simple concept: Lay off all the numbers, then mark of all the multiples of 2, then 3, then 5, and so on. A prime is determined when a number is not marked out. So, 3 is uncovered after the multiples of two are marked out; 5 is uncovered after the multiples of two and three are marked out. Although it is not possible to determine large primes in this fashion, the sieve was used to determine early tables of primes. (This makes a wonderful exercise in the discovery of primes for young students.)
11 in 12 We
modern terms have
prime and incomposite ordinary primes excluding 2, secondary and composite ordinary composite with prime factors only, relatively prime two composite numbers but prime and incomposite to another number, e.g. 9 and 25. Actually the third category is wholly subsumed by the second.
13 Eratsothenes will be studied in somewhat more detail later, was gifted in almost every intellectual endeavor. His admirers call him the second Plato and some called him beta, indicating that he was the second of the wise men of antiquity.
10
It is known that there is an infinite number of primes, but there is no way to find them. For example, it was only at the end of the 19th century that results were obtained that describe the asymptotic density of the primes among the integers. They are relatively sparce as the following formula n The number of primes n ln n shows.14 Called the Prime Number Theorem, this celebrated results was not even conjectured in its correct form until the late 18th century and its proof uses mathematical machinery well beyond the scope of the entirety of ancient Greek mathematical knowledge. The history of this theorem is interesting in its own right and we will consider it in a later chapter. For now we continue with the Pythagorean story. The pair of numbers a and b are called amicable or friendly if the divisors of a sum to b and if the divisors of b sum to a. The pair 220 and 284, were known to the Greeks. Iamblichus (C.300 -C.350 CE) attributes this discovery to Pythagoras by way of the anecdote of Pythagoras upon being asked what is a friend answered Alter ego, and on this thought applied the term directly to numbers pairs such as 220 and 284. Among other things it is not known if there is infinite set of amicable pairs. Example: All primes are deficient. More interesting that amicable numbers are perfect numbers, those numbers amicable to themselves. Mathematically, a number n is perfect if the sum of its divisors is itself. Examples: ( 6, 28, 496, 8128, ...) 6 = 1+2+3 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 496 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 31 + 62 + 124 + 248 There are no direct references to the Pythagorean study of these numbers, but in the comments on the Pythagorean study of amicable numbers, they were almost certainly studied as well. In Euclid, we find the following proposition. Theorem. (Euclid) If 2p 1 is prime, then (2p 1)2p1 is perfect. Proof. The proof is straight forward. Suppose 2p 1 is prime. We identify all the factors of (2p 1)2p1 . They are
14 This asymptotic result if also expressed as follows. Let P (n) = The number of primes n n. Then limn P (n)/[ ln n ] = 1.
11
1, 2, 4, . . . , 2p1 , and 1 (2p1 1), 2 (2p1 1), 4 (2p1 1), , . . . , 2p2 (2p1 1) Adding we have15
p1 X
n=0
2n + (2p1 1)
n=0
p2 X
2n = 2p 1 + (2p 1)(2p1 1) = (2p 1)2p1
and the proof is complete. (Try, p = 2, 3, 5, and 7 to get the numbers above.) There is just something about the word perfect. The search for perfect numbers continues to this day. By Euclids theorem, this means the search is for primes of the form (2p 1), where p is a prime. The story of and search for perfect numbers is far from over. First of all, it is not known if there are an infinite number of perfect numbers. However, as we shall soon see, this hasnt been for a lack of trying. Completing this concept of describing of numbers according to the sum of their divisors, the number a is classified as abundant or deficient16 according as their divisors sums greater or less than a, respectively. Example: The divisors of 12 are: 6,4,3,2,1 Their sum is 16. So, 12 is abundant. Clearly all prime numbers, with only one divisor (namely, 1) are deficient. In about 1736, one of historys greatest mathematicians, Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783) showed that all even perfect numbers must have the form given in Euclids theorem. This theorem stated below is singularly remarkable in that the individual contributions span more than two millenia. Even more remarkable is that Eulers proof could have been discovered with known methods from the time of Euclid. The proof below is particularly elementary. Theorem (Euclid - Euler) An even number is perfect if and only if it has the form (2p 1)2p1 where 2p 1 is prime. Proof. The sufficiency has been already proved. We turn to the necessity. The slight change that Euler brings to the description of perfect numbers is that he includes the number itself as a divisor. Thus a perfect is one whose divisors add to twice the number. We use this new definition below. Suppose that m is an even perfect number. Factor m
1 the geometric series r n = r r1 . This was also well known in antiquity n=0 and is in Euclid, The Elements. 16 Other terms used were over-perfect and defective respectively for these concepts. 15 Recall,
PN
N +1
12
as 2p1 a, where a is odd and of course p > 1. First, recall that the sum of the factors of 2p1 , when 2p1 itself is included, is (2p 1) Then 2m = 2p a = (2p 1)(a + + 1) where the term refers to the sum of all the other factors of a. Since (2p 1) is odd and 2p is even, it follows that (2p 1)|a, or a = b(2p 1). First assume b > 1. Substituting above we have 2p a = 2p (2p 1)b and thus 2p (2p 1)b = (2p 1)((2p 1)b + (2p 1) + b + + 1) = (2p 1)(2p + 2p b + ) where the term refers to the sum of all other the factors of a. Cancel the terms (2p 1). There results the equation 2p b = 2p + 2p b + which is impossible. Thus b = 1. To show that (2p 1) is prime, we write a similar equation as above 2p (2p 1) = (2p 1)((2p 1) + + 1) = (2p 1)(2p + ) where the term refers to the sum of all other the factors of (2p 1). Now cancel (2p 1). This gives 2p = (2p + ) If there are any other factors of (2p 1), this equation is impossible. Thus, (2p 1) is prime, and the proof is complete. 4 The Primal Challenge
The search for large primes goes on. Prime numbers are so fundamental and so interesting that mathematicians, amateur and professional, have been studying their properties ever since. Of course, to determine if a given number n is prime, it is necessary only to check for divisibility by a prime up to n. (Why?) However, finding large primes in this way is nonetheless impractical17 In this short section, we depart history and
17 The current record for largest prime has more than a million digits. The square root of any test prime then has more than 500,000 digits. Testing a million digit number against all such primes less than this is certainly impossible.
13
take a short detour to detail some of the modern methods employed in the search. Though this is a departure from ancient Greek mathematics, the contrast and similarity between then and now is remarkable. Just the fact of finding perfect numbers using the previous propositions has spawned a cottage industry of determining those numbers p for which 2p 1 is prime. We call a prime number a Mersenne Prime if it has the form 2p 1 for some positive integer p. Named after the friar Marin Mersenne (1588 - 1648), an active mathematician and contemporary of Fermat, Mersenne primes are among the largest primes known today. So far 38 have been found, though it is unknown if there are others between the 36th and 38th. It is not known if there are an infinity of Mersenne primes. From Euclids theorem above, we also know exactly 38 perfect numbers. It is relatively routine to show that if 2p 1 is prime, then so also is p.18 Thus the known primes, say to more than ten digits, can be used to search for primes of millions of digits. Below you will find complete list of Mersenne primes as of January, 1998. A special method, called the Lucas-Lehmer test has been developed to check the primality the Mersenne numbers.
18 If
p = rs, then 2p 1 = 2rs 1 = (2r )s 1 = (2r 1)((2r )s1 + (2r )s2 + 1)
14
Number
Prime
Digits
Mp
Year
Discoverer
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 ?? ?? ?? ??
(exponent) 2 1 1 Ancient 3 1 2 Ancient 5 2 3 Ancient 7 3 4 Ancient 13 4 8 1456 anonymous 17 6 10 1588 Cataldi 19 6 12 1588 Cataldi 31 10 19 1772 Euler 61 19 37 1883 Pervushin 89 27 54 1911 Powers 107 33 65 1914 Powers 127 39 77 1876 Lucas 521 157 314 1952 Robinson 607 183 366 1952 Robinson 1279 386 770 1952 Robinson 2203 664 1327 1952 Robinson 2281 687 1373 1952 Robinson 3217 969 1937 1957 Riesel 4253 1281 2561 1961 Hurwitz 4423 1332 2663 1961 Hurwitz 9689 2917 5834 1963 Gillies 9941 2993 5985 1963 Gillies 11213 3376 6751 1963 Gillies 19937 6002 12003 1971 Tuckerman 21701 6533 13066 1978 Noll - Nickel 23209 6987 13973 1979 Noll 44497 13395 26790 1979 Nelson - Slowinski 86243 25962 51924 1982 Slowinski 110503 33265 66530 1988 Colquitt - Welsh 132049 39751 79502 1983 Slowinski 216091 65050 130100 1985 Slowinski 756839 227832 455663 1992 Slowinski & Gage 859433 258716 517430 1994 Slowinski & Gage 1257787 378632 757263 1996 Slowinski & Gage 1398269 420921 841842 1996 Armengaud, Woltman, 2976221 895932 1791864 1997 Spence, Woltman, 3021377 909526 1819050 1998 Clarkson, Woltman, Kurowski 26972593 2098960 1999 Hajratwala, Kurowski 213466917 4053946 2001 Cameron, Kurowski
15
What about odd perfect numbers? As we have seen Euler characterized all even perfect numbers. But nothing is known about odd perfect numbers except these few facts: If n is an odd perfect number, then it must have the form n = q 2 p2k+1 , where p is prime, q is an odd integer and k is a nonnegative integer. It has at least 8 different prime factors and at least 29 prime factors. It has at least 300 decimal digits. Truly a challenge, finding an odd perfect number, or proving there are none will resolve the one of the last open problems considered by the Greeks. Figurate Numbers.
Numbers geometrically constructed had a particular importance to the Pythagoreans. Triangular numbers. These numbers are 1, 3, 6, 10, ... . The general form is the familiar 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n = n(n + 1) . 2
Triangular Numbers
16
Square numbers These numbers are clearly the squares of the integers 1, 4, 9, 16, and so on. Represented by a square of dots, they prove(?) the well known formula 1 + 3 + 5 + . . . + (2n 1) = n2 .
1 1 3 5 7 9 11 Square Numbers 2 3 4 5 6
The gnomon is basically an architects template that marks off similar shapes. Originally introduced to Greece by Anaximander, it was a Babylonian astronomical instrument for the measurement of time. It was made of an upright stick which cast shadows on a plane or hemispherical surface. It was also used as an instrument to measure right angles, like a modern carpenters square. Note the gnomon has been placed so that at each step, the next odd number of dots is placed. The pentagonal and hexagonal numbers are shown in the below.
Pentagonal Numbers
Hexagonal Numbers
Figurate Numbers of any kind can be calculated. Note that the se-
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans quences have sums given by 3 1 1 + 4 + 7 + . . . + (3n 2) = n2 n 2 2 and 1 + 5 + 9 + . . . + (4n 3) = 2n2 n.
17
Similarly, polygonal numbers of all orders are designated; this process can be extended to three dimensional space, where there results the polyhedral numbers. Philolaus is reported to have said: All things which can be known have number; for it is not possible that without number anything can be either conceived or known. Pythagorean Geometry Pythagorean Triples and The Pythagorean Theorem
6 6.1
Whether Pythagoras learned about the 3, 4, 5 right triangle while he studied in Egypt or not, he was certainly aware of it. This fact though could not but strengthen his conviction that all is number. It would also have led to his attempt to find other forms, i.e. triples. How might he have done this? One place to start would be with the square numbers, and arrange that three consecutive numbers be a Pythagorean triple! Consider for any odd number m, m2 + ( which is the same as m2 + or m2 = m2 m4 m2 1 m4 m2 1 + = + + 4 2 4 4 2 4 m2 1 2 m2 + 1 2 ) =( ) 2 2
18
Now use the gnomon. Begin by placing the gnomon around n2 . The next number is 2n + 1, which we suppose to be a square. 2n + 1 = m2 , which implies 1 n = (m2 1), 2 and therefore It follows that m2 + m4 m2 1 m4 m2 1 + = + + 4 2 4 4 2 4 1 n + 1 = (m2 + 1). 2
This idea evolved over the years and took other forms. The essential fact is that the Pythagoreans were clearly aware of the Pythagorean theorem Did Pythagoras or the Pythagoreans actually prove the Pythagorean theorem? (See the statement below.) Later writers that attribute the proof to him add the tale that he sacrificed an ox to celebrate the discovery. Yet, it may have been Pythagorass religious mysticism may have prevented such an act. What is certain is that Pythagorean triples were known a millennium before Pythagoras lived, and it is likely that the Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, and India cultures all had some protoproof, i.e. justification, for its truth. The proof question remains. No doubt, the earliest proofs were arguments that would not satisfy the level of rigor of later times. Proofs were refined and retuned repeatedly until the current form was achieved. Mathematics is full of arguments of various theorems that satisfied the rigor of the day and were later replaced by more and more rigorous versions.19 However, probably the Pythagoreans attempted to give a proof which was up to the rigor of the time. Since the Pythagoreans valued the idea of proportion, it is plausible that the Pythagoreans gave a proof based on proportion similar to Euclids proof of Theorem 31 in Book VI of The Elements. The late Pythagoreans (e 400 BCE) however probably did supply a rigorous proof of this most famous of theorems.
19 One of the most striking examples of this is the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, which asserts the existence of at least one root to any polynomial. Many proofs, even one by Euler, passed the test of rigor at the time, but it was Carl Friedrich Gauss (1775 - 1855) that gave us the rst proof that measures up to modern standards of rigor.
19
There are numerous proofs, more than 300 by one count, in the literature today, and some of them are easy to follow. We present three of them. The first is a simple appearing proof that establishes the theorem by visual diagram. To rigorize this theorem takes more than just the picture. It requires knowledge about the similarity of figures, and the Pythagoreans had only a limited theory of similarity.
a b c c c a b c a a
(a + b)
a2 + 2ab + b2 a2 + b2
1 = c + 4( ab) 2 = c2 + 2ab = c2
2
b a
This proof is based upon Books I and II of Euclids Elements, and is supposed to come from the figure to the right. Euclid allows the decomposition of the square into the two boxes and two rectangles. The rectangles are cut into the four triangles shown in the figure.
Then the triangle are reassembled into the first figure.
The next proof is based on similarity and proportion and is a special case of Theorem 31 in Book VI of The Elements. Consider the figure below.
20
If ABC is a right triangle, with right angle at A, and AD is perpendicular to BC, then the triangles DBA and DAC are similar to ABC. Applying the proportionality of sides we have |BA|2 = |BD| |BC| |AC|2 = |CD| |BC| |BA|2 + |AC|2 = |BC|2
It follows that
Finally we state and prove what is now called the Pythagorean Theorem as it appears in Euclid The Elements. Theorem I-47. In right-angled triangles, the square upon the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares upon the legs.
B D A L C
Proof requirements: SAS congruence, Triangle area = hb/2 b = base h = height E M N Pythagorean Theorem
21
This diagram is identical to the original figure used in the Euclids proof theorem. The figure was known to Islamic mathematicians as the Figure of the Bride. Sketch of Proof. Note that triangles 4ADC and 4ADE are congruent and hence have equal area. Now slide the vertex C of 4ADC to B. Slide also the vertex B of 4ADE to L. Each of these transformations do not change the area. Therefore, by doubling, it follows that the area of the rectangle ALME is equal to the area of the square upon the side AB. Use a similar argument to show that the area of the square upon the side BC equals the area of the rectangle LCN M.
This stamp was issued by Greece. It depicts the Pythagorean theorem.
6.2
The Golden Section
From Kepler we have these words Geometry has two great treasures: one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel.
22
A line AC divided into extreme and mean ratio is defined to mean that it is divided into two parts, AP and PC so that AP:AC=PC:AP, where AP is the longer part.
AP : AC = PC : AP Golden Section
Let AP = x and AC = a. Then the golden section is x ax = , a x and this gives the quadratic equation The solution is The golden section20 x2 + ax a2 . 1 5 a. x= 2 is the positive root: 51 .62 x= 2
The point Q in the diagram above is positioned at a distance from A so that |AQ| = |P C|. As such the segment AP is divided into mean and extreme ratio by Q. Can you prove this? Of course, this idea can be applied recursively, to successive refinements of the segment all into such sections. In the figure to the right Q1 , Q2 , Q3 , . . . are selected so that |AQ1 | = |QP |, |AQ2 | = |Q1 Q|, |AQ3 | = |Q2 Q1 |, . . . respectively.
20 ...now
Q3 A Q2 Q1 Q P C
| AP | : | AC | = | PC | : | AP | Golden Section
called the Golden ratio. Curiously, this number has recurred throughout the development of mathematics. We will see it again and again.
23
The points Q1 , Q2 , , Q3 , . . . divide the segments AQ, AQ1 , | > AQ2 , . . . into extreme and mean ratio, respectively.
The Pythagorean Pentagram And this was all connected with the construction of a pentagon. First we need to construct the golden section. The geometric construction, the only kind accepted21 , is illustrated below. Assume the square ABCE has side length a. Bisecting DC at E construct the diagonal AE, and extend the segment ED to EF, so that EF=AE. Construct the square DFGH. The line AHD is divided into extrema and mean ratio.
A G H B
Golden Section
Verification: 5 |AE|2 = |AD|2 + |DE|2 = a2 + (a/2)2 = a2 . 4 Thus, 5 1 51 |DH| = ( )a = a. 2 2 2
The key to the compass and ruler construction of the pentagon is the construction of the isosceles triangle with angles 36o , 72o, and 72o . We begin this construction from the line AC in the figure below.
21 In actual fact, the Greek xation on geometric methods to the exclusion of algebraic methods can be attributed to the inuence of Eudoxus
24
A B
180 + 2 = 180 = 72
Pentagon
Divide a line AC into the section with respect to both endpoints. So PC:AC=AP:PC; also AQ:AC=QC:AQ. Draw an arc with center A and radius AQ. Also, draw an arc with center C with radius P C. Define B to be the intersection of these arcs. This makes the triangles AQB and CBP congruent. The triangles BP Q and AQB are similar, and therefore P Q : QB = QP : AB. Thus the angle 6 P BQ = 6 QABAB = AQ. Define := 6 PAB and := 6 QPB. Then 180o 2 = 180o . This implies = 1 , and hence (2 + 1 ) = 180. Solving for we, 2 2 get = 72o . Since 4 PBQ is isoceles, the angle 6 QBP = 32o . Now complete the line BE=AC and the line BD=AC and connect edges AE, ED and DC. Apply similarity of triangles to show that all edges have the same length. This completes the proof. Regular Polygons
6.3
The only regular polygons known to the Greeks were the equilaterial triangle and the pentagon. It was not until about 1800 that C. F. Guass added to the list of constructable regular polyons by showing that there are three more, of 17, 257, and 65,537 sides respectively. Precisely, he showed that the constructable regular polygons must have 2m p1 p2 . . . pr
25
sides where the p1 , . . . , pr are distinct Fermat primes. A Fermat prime is a prime having the form 22 + 1. In about 1630, the Frenchman Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665) conjectured that all numbers of this kind are prime. But now we know differently.
n
26
Pierre Fermat (1601-1665), was a court attorney in Toulouse (France). He was an avid mathematician and even participated in the fashion of the day which was to reconstruct the masterpieces of Greek mathematics. He generally refused to publish, but communicated his results by letter.
Are there any other Fermat primes? Here is all that is known to date. It is not known if any other of the Fermat numbers are prime.
p
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12-20
22 + 1 3 5 17 257 65537 4,294,957,297 21 39 digits 78 digits 617 digits 709 digits 1409 digits
Factors 3 5 17 257 65537 641, 6,700,417 274177,67280421310721 composite composite composite unknown composite composite
Discoverer ancient ancient ancient ancient ancient Euler, 1732
Lenstra, et.al., 1990 Brent and Morain, 1988
By the theorem of Gauss, there are constructions of regular polygons of only 3, 5 ,15 , 257, and 65537 sides, plus multiples, 2m p1 p2 . . . pr sides where the p1 , . . . , pr are distinct Fermat primes.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 6.4 More Pythagorean Geometry
27
Contributions22 by the Pythagoreans include Various theorems about triangles, parallel lines, polygons, circles, spheres and regular polyhedra. In fact, the sentence in Proclus about the discovery of the irrationals also attributes to Pythagoras the discovery of the five regular solids (called then the cosmic figures). These solids, the tetrahedron (4 sides, triangles), cube (6 sides, squares, octahedron (8 sides, triangles), dodecahedron (12 sides, pentagons), and icosahedron (20 sides, hexagons) were possibly known to Pythagoras, but it is unlikely he or the Pythagoreans could give rigorous constructions of them. The first four were associated with the four elements, earth, fire, air, and water, and because of this they may not have been aware of the icosahedron. Usually, the name Theaetetus is associated with them as the mathematician who proved there are only five, and moreover, who gave rigorous constructions.
Tetrahedron
Cube
Octahedron
Dodecahedron
Icosahedron
Work on a class of problems in the applications of areas. (e.g. to construct a polygon of given area and similar to another polygon.) The geometric solutions of quadratics. For example, given a line segment, construct on part of it or on the line segment extended a parallelogram equal to a given rectilinear figure in area and falling
22 These facts generally assume a knowledge of the Pythagorean Theorem, as we know it. The level of rigor has not yet achieved what it would become by the time of Euclid
28
short or exceeding by a parallelogram similar to a given one. (In b modern terms, solve x2 + ax = d.) c 6.5 Other Pythagorean Geometry
We know from from Eudemus that the Pythagoreans discovered the result that the sum of the angles of any triangle is the sum of two right angles. However, if Thales really did prove that every triangle inscribed in a right triangle is a right triangle, he surely would have noted the result B for right triangles. This follows directly from observing that the base angles of A C the isosceles traingles formed from the O center as in the figure just to the right. The proof for any triangle follows directly. However, Eudemus notes a different proof. This proof requires the alternating interior angles theorem. That is: Theorem. (Euclid, The Elements Book I, Proposition 29.) A straight line B falling on parallel straight lines make E D the alternate angles equal to one another, the exterior angle equal to the A C interior and opposite angle, and the interior angles on the same side equal to two right angles. From this result and the figure just above, note that the angles / ABD = / CAB and / CBE = / ACB. The result follows.
The quadrature of certain lunes (crescent shaped regions) was performed by Hippocrates of Chios. He is also credited with the arrangement of theorems in an order so that one may be proved from a previous one (as we see in Euclid).
29
C D A
Lune
We wish to determine the area of the lune ABCD, where the large segment ABD is similar to the smaller segment (with base on one leg of the right isosceles triangle 4ABC). Because segments are to each other as the squares upon their bases, we have the Proposition:The area of the large lune ABCD is the area of the triangle 4ABC. This proposition was among the first that determined the area of a curvilinear figure in terms of a rectilinear figure. Quadratures were obtained for other lunes, as well. There resulted great hope and encouragement that the circle could be squared. This was not to be.
The Pythagorean Theory of Proportion
Besides discovering the five regular solids, Pythagoras also discovered the theory of proportion. Pythagoras had probably learned in Babylon the three basic means, the arithmetic, the geometric, and the subcontrary (later to be called the harmonic).
Beginning with a > b > c and denoting b as the mean of a and c, they are: 1 ab a = bc a arithmetic a + c = 2b
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans ab a = bc b ab a = bc c geometric ac = b2 harmonic 1 1 2 + = a c b
30
2 3
The most basic fact about these proportions or means is that if a > c, then a > b > c. In fact, Pythagoras or more probably the Pythagoreans added seven more proportions. Here is the complete list from the combined efforts of Pappus and Nicomachus. Formula ab c = bc a ab c = bc b ab b = bc a a ac = bc c ac a = ab c ac b = bc c ac b = ab c ac a = ab b Equivalent a + c2 =b a+c c2 a=b+c b a2 c=a+b b
2
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
c2 = 2ac ab a2 + c2 = a(b + c) b2 + c2 = c(a + b) ac c2 = ab b2 a2 = 2ab bc
The most basic fact about these proportions or means is that if a > c, then a > b > c. (The exception is 10, where b must be selected depending on the relative magnitudes of a and c, and in one of the cases b = c.) What is very well known is the following relationship between the first three means. Denote by ba , bg , and bh the arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic means respectively. Then ba > bg > bh (1)
The proofs are basic. In all of the statements below equality occurs if and only if a = c. First we know that since ( )2 0, it follows that 2 + 2 2. Apply this to = a and = b to conclude
31
ac that a + c > 2 ac, or ba bg . Next, we note that bh = 2 or a+b b2 = bh ba . Thus ba bg bh . g
What is not quite as well known is that the fourth mean, sometimes called the subcontrary to the harmonic mean is larger than all the others except the seventh and the ninth, where there is no greater than or less than comparison over the full range of a and c. The proof that this mean is greater than ba is again straight forward. We easily see that b= a2 + c2 (a + c)2 2ac = a+c a+c b2 = 2ba g ba ba
by (1). The other proofs are omitted. Notice that the first six of the proportions above are all of a ab specific generic type, namely having the form = . It turns bc out that each of the means (the solution for b) are comparable. The case with the remaining five proportions is very much different. Few comparisons are evident, and none of the proportions are much in use today. The chart of comparison of all the means below shows a plus (minus) if the mean corresponding to the left column is greater (less) than that of the top row. If there is no comparison in the greater or less than sense, the word No is inserted.
32
Comparing Pythagorean Proportions

i/j 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 2 + 3 + + 4 5 + 6 + + 7 No No No No No 8 No No No + + No No 9 No No No No No 10 No No No + + No No + No 11 + No No + + + No + No No
+ + + + + + + + + No No + No No No No No No - No No No + + No No No + No
No No No No No -
No No
No
No No No
Linking qualitative or subjective terms with mathematical proportions, the Pythagoreans called the proportion ba : bg = bg : bh the perfect proportion. The proportion a : ba = bh : c was called the musical proportion.
The Discovery of Incommensurables
Irrationals have variously been attributed to Pythagoras or to the Pythagoreans as has their study. Here, again, the record is poor, with much of it in the account by Proclus in the 4th century CE. The discovery is sometimes given to Hippasus of Metapontum (5th cent BCE). One account gives that the Pythagoreans were at sea at the time and when Hippasus produced (or made public) an element which denied virtually all of Pythagorean doctrine, he was thrown overboard. However, later evidence indicates that Theaetetus23 of Athens (c. 415 - c. 369 BCE)
23 the
teacher of Plato
33
discovered the irrationality of 3, 5, . . . , 17, and the dates suggest that the Pythagoreans could not have been in possession of any sort of theory of irrationals. More likely, the Pythagoreans had noticed their existence. Note that the discovery itself must have sent a shock to the foundations of their philosophy as revealed through their dictum All is Number, and some considerable recovery time can easily be surmised.
Theorem.
2 is incommensurable with 1. Proof. Suppose that 2 = a , with no common factors. Then b 2= a2 b2
or a2 = 2b2 . Thus24 2 | a2 , and hence 2 | a. So, a = 2c and it follows that 2c2 = b2 , whence by the same reasoning yields that 2 | b. This is a contradiction.
Is this the actual proof known to the Pythagoreans? Note: Unlike the Babylonians or Egyptians, the Pythagoreans recognized that this class of numbers was wholly different from the rationals. Properly speaking, we may date the very beginnings of theoretical mathematics to the first proof of irrationality, for in practical (or applied) mathematics there can exist no irrational numbers.25 Here a problem arose that is analogous to the one whose solution initiated theoretical natural science: it was necessary to ascertain something that
24 The expression m | n where m and n are integers means that m divides n without remainder. 25 I. M. Iaglom, Matematiceskie struktury i matematiceskoie modelirovanie. [Mathematical Structures and Mathematical Modeling] (Moscow: Nauka, 1980), p. 24.
34
it was absolutely impossible to observe (in this case, the incommensurability of a squares diagonal with its side).
The discovery of incommensurability was attended by the introduction of indirect proof and, apparently in this connection, by the development of the definitional system of mathematics.26 In general, the proof of irrationality promoted a stricter approach to geometry, for it showed that the evident and the trustworthy do not necessarily coincide. Other Pythagorean Contributions.
The Pythagoreans made many contributions that cannot be described in detail here. We note a few of them without commentary. First of all, connecting the concepts of proportionality and relative prime numbers, the theorem of Archytas of Tarantum (c. 428 - c. 327 BCE) is not entirely obvious. It states that there is no mean proportional between successive integers. Stated this way, the result is less familiar than using modern terms. Theorem. (Archytas) For any integer n, there are no integral solutions a to a A = a B where A and B are in the ratio n : n + 1. Proof. The proof in Euclid is a little cumbersome, but in modern notation it translates into this: Let C and D be the smallest numbers in the same ratio as A and B. That is C and D are relatively prime. Let D = C + E Then C C n = = D C +E n+1 which implies that Cn + C = Cn + En. Canceling the terms Cn, we see that E divides C. Therefore C and D are not relatively prime, a contradiction.
26 A. Szabo Wie ist die Mathematik zu einer deduktiven Wissenschaft geworden?, Acta Antiqua, 4 (1956), p. 130.
35
The Pythagoreans also demonstrated solutions to special types of linear systems. For instance, the bloom of Thymaridas (c. 350 BCE) was a rule for solving the following system. x + x1 + x2 + . . . + xn x + x1 x + x2 ... x + xn This solution is easily determined as x= (a1 + . . . + an ) s n2 = s = a1 = a2 = an
It was used to solve linear systems as well as to solve indeterminate linear equations. The Pythagoreans also brought to Greece the earth-centered cosmology that became the accepted model until the time of Copernicus more that two millenia later. Without doubt, this knowledge originated in Egypt and Babylon. Later on, we will discuss this topic and its mathematics in more detail.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans References
36
1. Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy, Simon and Schuster Touchstone Books, New York, 1945.
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae1
(c. 500- c 428 BC) As with many mathematicians of the 5th century BCE, little is known of Anaxagoras life. He was born in Clazomenae, now in Turkey. He was fully committed to science, and neglected his considerable wealth toward its end. Most probably, he t within the Ionian school2 as he like his predecessors was concerned with explaining phenomena in terms of matter or physical forces. In about 480 he moved lived and thrived in Athens, enjoying the friendship of Pericles (c. 495 - 429 BCE, Athens). Pericles, an Athenian statesman largely responsible for the development, in the later 5th century BC, of Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. The arrival of the Sophist philosophers in Athens happened during his middle life, and he took full advantage of the society of Zeno. It is from the Sophists that Anaxagoras is said to have learned impassivity toward trouble and insult and skepticism toward divine phenomena. When Pericles suered decline in inuence, Anaxagoras lost inuence as well, and was attacked for his impious views. In fact, the attack on Anaxagoras may well have been an indirect attack on Pericles. Imprisoned in about 450 BCE and then later released probably due to the intervention of Pericles, he was compelled to leave Athens to retire to Lampsacus for the remainder of his life. In the end, according to other sources he was condemned to death for advocating the Persian cause, at the ripe age of seventy-two. The particular charge for his imprisonment was for asserting that the sun was not a diety but a huge red-hot stone as large as all of Peloponnesus and the moon borrowed its light from the sun. That is, moonlight is reected light. This epoch making discovery permitted the rst accurate description and explanation of solar and lunar eclipses. His full explanation was not without error, but the idea took root and became the accepted theory very soon thereafter. Anaxagoras theory of the cosmos was his most original contribution. He viewed that the cosmos was formed by mind in two stages: rst, by a revolving and mixing process that still continues; and, second, by the development of living things. As to the rst,
1 G. c 2 Thales,
Donald Allen, 1999 Anaximander, Anaximenes, Diogenes of Apollonia, et al.
Anaxagoras
he theorized that the formation of the world began with a vortex set up in a portion of mixed mass in which all things were together. This rotating motion began at the center and gradually spread in wider and wider circles. From this, the elements of the world began to separate into aether and air. From the air was distilled the clouds, water, earth and stones. Using ideas of centrifugal force, he postulated the process of condensation of the air into the solid earth. These ideas were later used by Kant and Laplace to describe the formation of the solar system. Admittedly, these cosmological theories that are abstract, unveriable, but vaguely plausible. This is how new science begins, with guesses and plausibility arguments long before experiments. On the constitution of matter he diered from Greek thinkers of the time who had tried to explain the physical universe by an assumption of a single fundamental element (cf. Anaximander). Some, including Parmenides, asserted that such an assumption could not account for movement and change, and, others posited more elements (e.g. air earth, water, re) as necessary for material explanation. Anaxagoras posited an innite number. Unlike his predecessors Anaxagoras included materials found in living bodies, such as leaf, bark, esh, and bone. He wrote the book On Nature, the rst widely circulated book on scientic subjects. Cost: 1 drachma. Though Anaxagoras was mostly a natural philosopher rather than a mathematician, while in prison, he attempted to square the circle3 using only a straight edge and compass. More precisely, sources state that he wrote on this subject. The term wrote was at times used to indicate studied or investigated. Note that it was probably known that regular polygons, of an arbitrarily large number of sides, inscribed in a circle could be squared using only the straight edge and compass. From this preliminary work, most likely, the general squaring the circle conjecture was made.
3 One of the oldest problems in mathematics, the problem of squaring the circle was nally resolved in the negative by the German mathematician C. L. F. Lindemann (1852 - 1939) in about 1881. Precisely stated, this problem poses the question of constructing a square having the same area as a given circle. Though solutions were given by the ancients using a variety of methods, the goal was always to determine a solution using only a straight edge and compass. This problem has a remarkable history and has been one of those mathematical problems that attracted professional and amateur mathematicians alike. Even today, mathematics departments all over the world each year receive new straight edge and compass constructions. Of course all are incorrect.
Anaxagoras
Can you perform this construction? There are two steps. The rst is to construct a rectangle having the same area as a triangle. For this use the triangle base with half the altitude. The second is to square the rectangle. To do this suppose the dimensions of the rectangle are a and b, with a b. The area is ab, and the square > with this area has side length ab. Form a right angle and construct the length of one side to be ab . From the endpoint construct an 2 arc of radius a+b . Extend the second side of the right angle to meet 2 this arc. By the Pythagorean theorem, the length of the second side q is ( a+b )2 ( ab )2 = ab. See the diagram below. 2 2
Altitude (a+b)/2 ab Base Triangle Rectangle
Now repeat the process for all the triangles constructed from the inscribed polygon (all with a vertex at the origin). Add them up and create the square. The attempt conveys a remarkable amount of information. It shows clearly that that Greeks were more than just casually interested in non-practical problems, and that they had a very clear distinction between the exact and the approximate. It demonstrates a dierentiation of acceptable and not acceptable methods, and this may have preceeded or have developed along side acceptable logic for proofs. The price paid in this particular situation is that the Greeks were prepossessed by straight edge and compass constructions for much of their history. Thus, precluded from development was the vast range of functions known to us and the general concept of function, as well. In all of the ancient Greek literature, functions were always specic examples, whether the conic sections or trigonometric functions, or other dynamically formed curves. Yet, Anaxagoras lived in the age where the great problems of antiquity were formed: 1. Doubling the cube. (Delian problem)
(a-b)/2 Rectangle Square
Anaxagoras 2. Trisecting the angle. 3. Squaring the circle.
Anaxagoras represents bold, rational inquiry. He represented the Greek trademark: the desire to know. His principle interest was in philosophy, where his main belief was that reason rules the world. The Heroic Age If Greek civilization seems familiar to the modern mind it is because the Greeks loved reason in both practice and form. It was a necessary aspect of cultural life, a necessary part of political persuation, and a replacement for appeals to tradition and unchallenged religion. Science and theology, at times sister subjects, were simultaneously liberated together with political thought and became the principle parts of the unique adventure of the Greek mind. This period has been called the heroic age, for many reasons, but partiularly for us because the Greeks attempted to solve these very dicult problems. That they were dicult is evidenced from that fact that it would be two millennia before their resolution was complete all in the negative. The problems would tempt, perplex, and ultimately resist the eorts of the very best mathematicians of every age until the 19th century, with the circle squaring problem resolved in 1881. Attempts to solve these problems and other ancient problems would drive the developmental directions of mathematics until modern times.
Greek Numbers and Arithmetic!
Introduction
The earliest numerical notation used by the Greeks was the Attic system. It employed the vertical stroke for a one, and symbols for5, 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000. Though there was some steamlining of its use, these symbols were used in a similar way to the Egyptian system, being that symbols were used repeatedly as needed and the system was non positional. By the Alexandrian Age, the Greek Attic system of enumeration was being replaced by the Ionian or alphabetic numerals. This is the system we discuss. The (Ionian) Greek system of enumeration was a little more sophisticated than the Egyptian though it was non-positional. Like the Attic and Egyptian systems it was also decimal. Its distinguishing feature is that it was alphabetical and required the use of more than 27 different symbols for numbers plus a couple of other symbols for meaning. This made the system somewhat cumbersome to use. However, calculation lends itself to a great deal of skill within almost any system, the Greek system being no exception.
"
Greek Enumeration and Basic Number Formation
First, we note that the number symbols were the same as the letters of the Greek alphabet. symbol
! $ ' * 2 5 8
value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
symbol value 10 " 20 % 30 ( 40 + 50 . 60 0 70 3 80 6 90
symbol value 100 # 200 & 300 ) 400 , 500 / 600 1 700 4 800 7 900 (koppa),
where three additional characters, the

1 2000, c
(digamma), the
G. Donald Allen
Greek Numbers and Arithmetic and the (sampi) are used. Hence,
&62 = 287
Larger Numbers Larger numbers were also available. The thousands, 1000 to 9000, were represented by placing adiacritical mark ! before a unit. Thus
!
'&62 = 3287
In other sources we see the diacritical mark placed as a subscript before the unit. Thus
!
'&62 = 3287
The uses of a M was used to represent numbers from 10,000 on up. Thus
9 ! = 50: 000 9 - = 50: 000 9 "# &62 = 120: 287 9 !% &62 = 120: 287
Alternatively, depending on the history one reads
Archimedes, in his book The Sand Reckoner, calculated the number of grains of sand to fill the universe" . This required him to develop an extention the power of Greek enumeration to include very large numbers. Fractions In the area of fractions, context was crucial for correctly reading a fraction. A diacritical mark was placed after the denominator of the (unit) fraction. So,
$! = 1 2 ;<= +$ ! = 1 42
but this latter example could also mean 40 ! . " More complex fractions could be written as well, with context again being important. The numerator was written with an overbar. Thus,
.! 6* = 51 84
Numerous, similar, representations also have been used, with increasing sophistication over time. Indeed, Diophantus uses a fractional form identical to ours but with the numerator and denominator in reversed positions.
2 The reader may ask, What universe? It was the universe of Aristarchus, the so called ancient Copernicus because he proposed a sun centered universe with the earth and other planet orbiting it. More on this later.
Greek Numbers and Arithmetic

#
Calculation
The arithmetic operations are complex in that so many symbols are used. However, as you can imagine, addition amounts to grouping and then carrying. For example 5 + 7 = - + 2 = %$ = 12, not terribly unlike what we do. Multiplication was carried out using the distributive law. For example:
&62 $ = (200 + 80 + 7) 2 = 400 + 160 + 14 = 574 = /3* = (& + 6 + 2) $
Remarkably, division was performed in essentially the same way as we do it today.
Eudoxus of Cnidus1
Eudoxus (c. 400 BCE), son of Aeschines, is ranked among the greatest of the ancient mathematicians, surpassed perhaps only by Archimedes | but more on Archimedes later. The few facts known concerning his life are derived substantially fron the histories written by Diogenes Lartius in the 3rd century BCE. e Eudoxus was born in Cnidus, on the Black Sea. Eudoxus learned mathematics and medicine at a school that rivaled that of Hippocrates of Cos. A well-to-do physician, very much impressed by his ability, paid his way to Athens so that he could study at Plato's Academy (est. 387), He also spent 16 months in Egypt during the reign of Nectanebo I (380-363). At Heliopolis, now a Cairo suburb, Eudoxus learned the priestly wisdom, which included astronomy. He studied mathematics with Archytus (a Pythagorean) in Tarentum. He studied medicine with Philistium on Sicily. At the age of 23 he went to Plato's academy in Athens to study philosophy and rhetoric. He established a school having many pupils at Cyzicus on the sea of Marmora (Marmara) in what is now Balikhisar, Turkey. (Balikhisar, in a position of strategic commercial importance, was likely founded as a colony of Miletus in 756 BCE.) In 365 B. C. he returned to Athens with his pupils. He became a colleague of Plato. At the age of 53 he died in Cnidos, highly honored as a lawgiver/legilator. He was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day. Eudoxus was the most reknown astronomer and mathematician of his day. In astronomy devised an ingenious planetary system based on spheres.
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Eudoxus of Cnidus ? The spherical earth is at rest at the center. ? Around this center, 27 concentric spheres rotate. ? The exterior one caries the xed stars, ? The others account for the sun, moon, and ve planets.
? Each planet requires four spheres, the sun and moon, three each. Consider the moon. The outer sphere rotates in one day as the sphere of the stars and with axis perpendicular to the zodiac circle. One period is 24 hours. The next middle sphere rotates on an circle at an angle to the plane of zodiac circle, and from east to west. One period is 223 lunations. From this sphere the \recession of the nodes" is realized. The inner sphere rotates about an axis inclined to the axis of the second at an angle equal to the highest latitude attained by the moon, and from west to east. The draconitic month, the period of this sphere, is 27 days, 5 hours, 5 minutes. The moon is xed on the great circle at this angle.
Eudoxus of Cnidus Homocentric spheres for the moon
Zodiac Circle Earth
Moon
? The description of the motion of the planets is more clever still. ? This model was improved by Callippus of Cyzicus (. 370 BCE) , a student of Eudoxus, who added spheres to improve the theory, especially for Mercury and Venus and by Aristotle who added to this \retrograde" spheres. Aristotle's cosmos, modelled like an onion, consisted of a series of some 55 spheres nested about a center, the Earth. However, these emendations never accounted for variation of luminosity, which had been observed and bounded elongations (e.g. Venus is never observed to be more than about 48o and Mercury never more than about 24o from the Sun).
? Eudoxus also described the constellations and the rising and setting of the xed stars. ? Within 50 years the whole theory had to be abandoned. Eudoxus's contributions to mathematics include:
Eudoxus of Cnidus
A theory of proportion; this allowed the study of irrationals (incommensurables)2 . The concept of magnitude, as not a number but stood for such as line segments, angles, areas, etc, and which could vary continuously. Magnitudes were opposed to numbers, which could change discontinuously. This avoided giving numerical values to lengths, areas, etc. Consequently great advances in geometry were made3 . The method of exhaustion. Establishing rigorous methods for nding areas and volumes of curvilinear gures (e.g. cones and spheres). A profound inuence in the establishment of deductive organization of proof on the basis of explicit axioms. There is little question that Eudoxus added to the body of geometric knowledge. Details are scant, but probably his main contributions can be found in Euclid, Books V, VI, and XII.
The Theory of Proportion of Eudoxus is found as Denition 5 of Euclid, Book V. Magnitudes are said to be in the same ratio, the rst to the second and the third to the fourth, when, if any equimultiples whatever be taken of the rst and third, and any equimultiples whatever of the second and fourth, the former equimultiples alike exceed, are alike equal to, or alike fall short of, the latter equimultiples respectively taken in corresponding order. In modern terms: a=b = c=d if and only if, for all integers m and n, whenever ma < nb then mc < nd, and so on for > and =.
2 Incommensurables
had only been recently discovered, reportedly by Hippasus of Metapon-
tum
3 at the expense of algebra. All mathematicians were driven to geometry. The consequence persists. Even today, we still speak of x2 and x3 as x squared and x cubed.
Eudoxus of Cnidus
This is tantamount to an innite process. But it was needed to deal with incommensurables. The Method of Exhaustion unquestionably helped resolve number of loose ends then extant. It contained as Proposition 1 of Book X. Two unequal magnitudes being set out, if from the greater there is subtracted a magnitude greater than its half, and from that which is left a magnitude greater than its half, and if this process be repeated continually, there will be left some magnitude which will be less than the lesser magnitude set out. Let a > > 0 be given4 . Let a > s1 > a=2, and a1 = a s1 . Let a1 > s2 > a1 =2 and a2 = a1 s2 . Continue this process, generating the sequence a1 ; a2 ; ; : : :, we eventually have an < . How does this dier from our limit concept today? With this result, Eudoxus was able to establish following: Proposition 2. (Book XII) Circles are to one another as the squares on the diameters. This was proved on the basis of the previous proposition. Proposition 1. (Book XII) Similar polygons inscribed in circles are to one another as the squares on the diameters.
4 Note the assumption that > 0 is superuous in the language of the time as there were only positive numbers. So, the assumption is implicit
Eudoxus of Cnidus
To prove the Proposition 2, polygonal gures, of indenitely increasing numbers of sides, are both inscribed and circumscribed in the circle. Assuming Proposition 2 does not hold will lead to the contradiction that the result must be false for the polygons also.
Proof of Proposition 2. Let a and A, d and D be the repectively diameters of the circles. Suppose that d2 a > 2: A D Then there is an a0 < a so that a0 d2 = 2: A D Set = a a0 . Let pn ( resp. Pn ) be the inscribed regular polygons of n sides in circle a (resp A). Then 1 a p2n < (a pn ): 2 By the method of exhaustion it follows that for large enough n a pn < a a0 = which implies that pn > a0 : We know that d2 a0 pn = 2 = : Pn D A
Eudoxus of Cnidus
Thus, since pn > a0 , it follows that Pn > A. But this is impossible, and we have a contradiction. To complete the proof, it must now be shown that a d2 < 2 A D is also impossible. This is a double reductio ad absurdum argument, a requirement of this method. Eudoxus also demonstrated that the ratios of the volumes of two spheres is as the ratio of the cubes5 of their radii.
On pyramids Eudoxus proved Proposition 5. (Book XII) Pyramids which are of the same height and have triangular bases are to each other as their bases.
Other propositions are more famous6 : Proposition. The volume of every pyramid is one third of the prism of on the same base and with the same height. Proposition. The volume of every cone is one third of the cylinder on the same base and with the same height. Curiously, the proof is by the method of slabs, familiar to all college freshmen after completing their rst calculus course.
is a modern word; the original word as given by Archimedes is triple. to prove either of these without calculus!! Yet, the Egyptians seems to have been aware of the formulas. Levels of understanding progress.
5 This 6 Try
EUCLID, fl. 300 BCE1

The name Euclid is known to almost every high school student as the author of The Elements, the long studied treatise on geometry and number theory. No other book except the Bible has been so widely translated and circulated. From the time it was written it was regarded as an extraordinary work and was studied by all mathematicians, even the greatest mathematician of antiquity Archimedes, and so it has been through the 23 centuries that have followed. It is unquestionably the best mathematics text ever written and is likely to remain so into the distant future.
This miniature found in a manuscript of the Roman surveyors in Wolfenbuttel, 6th century CE is purportedly an image of Euclid.
Euclid, the mathematician
Little is known about Euclid, fl. 300BC, the author of The Elements. He taught and wrote in Egypt at the Museum and Library at Alexandria,
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Euclid which was founded in about 300 BCE by Ptolemy I Soter, who
2
Almost everything about him comes from Proclus Commentary, 4th cent AD. He writes that Euclid collected Eudoxus theorems, perfected many of Theaetetus, and completed fragmentary works left by others. His synthesis of these materials was so masterful that scarcely any mathematician today is unfamiliar with this work. Euclid is said to have said to the first Ptolemy who inquired if there was a shorter way to learn geometry than the Elements: ...there is no royal road to geometry Another anecdote relates that a student after learning the very first proposition in geometry, wanted to know what he would gain by knowing such proposition, whereupon Euclid called his slave and said, Give him threepence since he must needs make gain by what he learns. There are also remarks in the Islamic literature that attributes names to Euclids father and grandfather, that gives his birthplace as Tyre, and provides a very few other details about Euclid, including the admonition placed on the doors of many Greek schools forbidding anyone from entering who has not first learned the elements of Euclid. Of the character of Euclid there is only a remark by Pappus that Euclid was unassuming, not boasting of his work and honest and fair to the contributions of others. These comments seem to have come as a pointed contrast to Apollonius3 ? He , who we will discuss later. This, 700 years after Euclids death, can scarcely be considered authoritative. Indeed, by this time Euclid was more legend than person. Sources of The Elements
Before Euclid there was geometry. The latest compiler before Euclid was Theudius, whose textbook was used in the Academy. It was was
2 Ptolemy I was a Macedonian general in the army of Alexander the Great. He became ruler of Egypt in 323 BCE upon Alexanders death and reigned to 285/283 BCE. 3 Apollonius was known as the great geometer because of his work on conics. He seems to have felt himself a rival of Archimedes, twenty five years his senior. His accomplishments in proving tangencies without coordinates is singularly remarkable, and he is considered one of the greatest of the ancients of the Helenistic period.
Euclid
probably the one used by Aristotle. But soon after The Elements appeared, all others were forgotten. If the greatness of a masterpiece can be measured by the number of people that study it, The Elements must rank second of all written works, with only the The Bible preceding it. Judging by the number of references, it must have been a classic almost from the time of publication. The most accomplished mathematicians of antiquity studied The Elements, and several of them wrote commentaries on it. Among them are Heron, Proclus, Pappus, Theon of Alexandria, and Simplicius. Some authors added books (chapters) and other improved or modified the theorems or proofs. In fact, considerable effort has been expended to determine what the original work contained. This is difficult in that it was written about 2300 years ago, and no copies are extant. Only a few potsherds dating from 225 BC contain notes about some propositions, Many new editions were issued. The most significant was prepared by Theon of Alexandria, 4th century, CE. Theons scholarly recension was for centuries the basis of all known translations. Another version was found in the Vatican by Peyrard (early 19th century) with the customary attributions to Theon absent. From this, it was possible to determine an earlier, root version of The Elements closer to the original. However, it was not until the Danish scholar J. L. Heiberg in 1883-1888, working with the Peyrard manuscript and the best of the Theonine manuscripts together with commentaries by Heron and others, that a new and definitive text was constructed. This version is widely regarded as closest of all to the original, both in organization and constitution. When the Greek world crumbled in the 5th century, it was the Islamics that inherited the remains. At first disdaining any regard for ancient work and indeed destroying what they found, substantially on religious bases, they later embraced the Greek learning through as many ancient texts as could be recovered. They actively sought out the remaining Greek editions, even by making lavish purchases, and translated them to Arabic. We will discuss Islamic mathematical contributions to our mathematical heritage in more detail later. For now it suffices to say that it was the Arabic translations that provided the primary source materials for the Latin translations that were to emanate from Moorish Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. Three Arabic translations were made during the Islamic period of enlightenment. One was produced by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar, first for the Abbassid caliph Harun ar-Rashid (ruled 786-809) and again
Euclid
for the caliph al-MaMun (ruled 813-833); The second was made by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (ruled 808-873), in Baghdad. His translation was revised by Thabit ibn Qurrah4 The third was made by Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi in the 13th century. Of the Latin translations, the first of these was produced by the Englishman Adelard of Bath (1075 - 1164) in about 1120. Adelard obtained a copy of an Arabic version in Spain, where he travelled while disguised as a Muslim student. There is, however, some evidence that The Elements was known in England even two centuries earlier. Adelards translation, which was an abriged version with commentary, was followed by a version offered by the Italian Gherard of Cremona (1114 - 1187) who was said to have translated the 15 books of The Elements. Certainly this was one of the numerous editions This version was written in Spain. Because it contains a number of Greek words such as rhombus where Adelards version contains the Arabic translations, it is likely independent of Adelards version. Moreover, Gherard no doubt used Greek sources as well. Gherards manuscript was thought lost but was discovered in 1904 in France. It is a clearer translation that Adelards, without abbreviations and without editing, being a word for word translation containing the revised and critical edition of Thabits version. A third translation from the Arabic was produced by Johannes Campanus of Novara (1205 - 1296) that came in the late 13th century. The Campanus translation is similar to the Adelard version but it is clearer and the order of theorem and proof is as now, with the proof following the proposition statement. The first direct translation from the Greek without the Arabic intermediate versions was made by Bartolomeo Zamberti in 1505. The editio princeps of the Greek text was published at Basel in 1533 by Simon Grynaeus. The first edition of the complete works of Euclid was the Oxford edition of 1703, in Greek and Latin, by David Gregory. All texts, including the one we quote from, are now superceded by Euclidis Opera Omnia (8 volumes and a supplement, 1883-1916), which were edited by J.L. Heiberg and H. Menge. The earliest known copy of The Elements dates from 888AD and is currently located in Oxford.
4 Abul-Hasan Thabit ibn Qurra (826 - 901) was court astronomer in Baghdad, though he was a native of Harran. Thabit generalized Pythagorass theorem to an arbitrary triangle. He was regarded as Arabic equivalent of Pappus, the commentator on higher mathematics. He was also founder of the school that translated works by Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, and Eutocius. Without his efforts many more of the ancient books would have been lost.
Euclid
Note. There is an important web site at www.perseus.tufts.edu which details many facets of the ancient Greek world. It also contains the statements of the propositions in The Elements.
Euclids Other Works
Five works by Euclid have survived to our day: 1. The Elements 2. Data a companion volume to the first six books of the Elements written for beginners. It includes geometric methods for the solution of quadratics. 3. Division of Figures a collection of thirty-six propositions concerning the division of plane configurations. It survived only by Arabic translations. 4. Phaenomena on spherical geometry, it is similar to the work by Autolycus 5. Optics an early work on perspective including optics, catoptrics, and dioptrics. All these are in the TAMU library. Three works by Euclid have not survived: 1. Porisms possibly an ancient version of analytic geometry. 2. Surface Loci ? 3. Pseudaria ? The Elements
The Elements was one of the first books printed with the Gutenberg press, though not by Gutenberg personally. It was first published in Venice by Erhard Ratdolt. This book had 2 1 inch margins in which 2
Euclid
were placed the figures. It was the first mathematical book of importance printed. The reason this or other mathematical texts were published so late was the technical difficulty of printing the figures. There is a remarkable similarity with the contemporary difficulty of producing mathematical typography for Web-based course. That is substantially the reason why these materials are in Acrobat pdf format. Our source for the results in The Elements are from the Sir Thomas L. Heath translation into English of Heibergs Greek version. The general style of The Elements contrasts dramatically with a modern mathematics textbook. Indeed, these days only research monographs have a similar style. Namely, there is no examples, no motivations, no calculation, no witty remarks, no introduction, no preamble. The expensive method of manuscript reproduction, hand transcriptions, probably dictated this economy of scale. However, original commentary and the like may have been lost through the many new editions and translations. The Elements Structure: Thirteen Books
4.1
It comes as a surprise to many that The Elements contains so much mathematics, including number theory and aspects of series and limits. The Elements can be topically divided into four sections. Books I-VI Plane geometry Book X Incommensurables
Books VII-IX Theory of Numbers Book XI-XIII Solid Geometry Each of the books was organized in the following order. Definitions
Axioms or common notions general statements obvious to all Postulates particular to the subject at hand Theorems
Present here is the considerable influence of Aristotle, who outlined the logical requirements of an argument. The axioms were general
Euclid
statements, so primitive and so true that there could be no hope of any sort of proof. A typical example: If equals be added to equals, the wholes are equal. This axiom, used repeatedly in almost every area of mathematics is completely fundamental. Axioms have bearing throughout all of reason. Postulates are the primitive basis of the subject at hand, and in The Elements form the set of constructs that are possible. In Book I there are five postulates. Here is one: To describe a circle with any center and distance. This means the Euclid states without proof that a circle of any diameter and radius may be constructed. This postulate, just barely more that defining what a circle is, allows circles to be constructed as needed. Of course, the theorems constitute the main content of the material at hand. This organization, which is the standard today, is remarkable in that it was developed concurrently with the materials themselves. It is reasonable to conclude that the theorems of The Elements assumed through many forms and were proved many ways before Euclid locked them into his timeless masterpiece.
4.2
The Elements Book I
Definitions 23 1. A point is that which has no part 2. A line is breadthless length. 3. The extremities of a line are points. 4. A straight line is a line which lies evenly with the points on itself. 5. A surface is that which has length and breadth only 6. The extremities of a surface are lines. 7. A plane surface is a surface which lies evenly with the straight lines on itself. 8. A plane angle is the inclination to one another of two lines in a plane which meet one another and do not lie in a straight line. 9. And when the lines containing the angle are straight, the angle is called rectilinear. . . .
Euclid
15. A circle is a plane figure contained by one line such that all the straight lines meeting it from one point among those lying within the figure are equal to one another. 16. And the point is called the center of the circle . . . 17. A diameter of the circle is any straight line drawn through the center and terminated in both directions by the circumference of the circle, and such a straight line also bisects the circle. . . . 23. Parallel straight lines are straight lines which, being in the same plane and being produced indefinitely in both directions do not meet one another in either direction.
Postulates 5 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
To draw a straight line from any point to any point. To produce a finite straight line continuously in a straight line. To describe a circle with any center and distance. That all right angles are equal to one another. That, if a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less than to right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles less than the to right angles.
Euclid
m 1
Axioms 5
1. Things which are equal to the same thing are also equal to one another. 2. If equals be added to equals, the wholes are equal. 3. If equals be subtracted from equals, the remainders are equal. 4. Things which coincide with one another are equal to one another. 5. The whole is greater that the part.
Some Logic A syllogism: a syllogism in discourse in which, certain things being stated, something other than what is stated follows of necessity from their being so. Example: If all monkeys are primates and all primates are mammals, then it follows that all monkeys are mammals. modus ponens: If p, then q. p. Therefore q. modus tolens: If p, then q. Not q. Therefore, not p. The 48 propositions of Book I comprise much of the standard one year high school geometry course. The most famous of all them is Proposition I-47, the Pythagorean Theorem, which was discussed in the chapter on Pythagoras. Here we shall consider a few of the results with their proofs as samples of the work.
Euclid
10
Proposition I-1. On a given finite straight line to construct an equilateral triangle.

C
Proof. To prove this construct circles at A and B of radius AB. Argue that the intersection point C is equidistant from A and B, and since it lies on the circles, the distance is AB. Note that in Proposition I-1, Euclid can appeal only to the definitions and postulates. But he doesnt use the Aristotelian syllogisms, rather he uses modus ponens. Note also that there is a subtle assumption of the continuous nature of the plane made in the visual assumption that the circles intersect. Flaws of this type went essentially unresolved up until modern times. The Elements Book I
4.3
Proposition I-4. (SAS) If two triangles have two sides equal to two sides respectively, and have the angles contained by the equal sides also equal, then the two triangles are congruent. Note: The modern term congruent is used here, replacing Euclids assertion that each part of one triangle is equal to the corresponding part of the other. Euclid assumes that rigid translation or rotation leaves figures invariant and this is the final step, though never take, of every congruence proof. The one figure can be placed upon the other, with all sides and angles in correspondence, means they are congruent.
Euclid
11
Proposition I-5. In isosceles triangles the angles at the base are equal to one another, and, if the equal straight lines are produced further, the angles under the base will be equal to one another.
A
B F D
C G E
Proof. Extend AB to D and AC to E. Mark off equal distances BF and CG on their respective segments. Now argue that since AF and AG are equal and AC and AB are equal and the triangles ACF and ABG share the included angle at A, they must be congruent. This means than the sides F C and GB are equal. Hence, triangles F CB and GCB are (SAS) congruent. Therefore, the angles / F BC and / GCB are equal, from which the conclusion follows. Proposition I-6. If in a triangle two angles are equal to one another, then the opposite sides are also equal.
A D
Proof. We are given that / ABC = / ACB. Assume AB 6= AC. Assume AB > AC. Make D so that DC = AB. Now argue that triangles ABC and DBC are congruent. Thus 4DBC, the part is equal to 4ABC, the whole. This cannot be. Proposition I-29. A straight line intersecting two parallel straight line makes the alternate angles equal to one another, the exterior angle equal
Euclid
12
to the interior and opposite angle, and the interior angles on the same side equal to two right angles.
E
Proof. Assume 6 AGH > 6 GHD. Then the sum of 6 AGH and 6 BGH is greater than the sum of 6 BGH and 6 GHD. But the first sum is two right angles. (Proposition I-13.) Thus the second sum is less than two right angles and thus the line are not parallel. Proposition I-35. Parallelograms which are on the same base and in the same parallels are equal to one another.
A D G E F
Proof. The proof follow directly once the triangles BAE and CDF are shown to be congruent. And this step is argued via SAS congruence. With I-35 established, it is shown in Proposition I-37 that triangles which are on the same base and in the same parallels are equal to one another, and in Proposition I-41 that if a triangle and parallel have the same base and are between the same parallels, then the triangle is half the parallelogram (in area). These together with Proposition I-46 on the constructibility of a square on any segment are the main tools in the proof of the Pythagorean theorem. The formal statement is Proposition I-47. In right-angled triangles the square on the side subtending the right angle is equal to the squares on the sides containing the right angle.
Euclid
13
See more details and diagrams in the chapter on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans.
4.4
The Elements Book II
Book II, with 14 Theorems, is differs from Book I in that it deals with rectangles and squares. It can be termed geometric algebra. There is some debate among Euclid scholars as to whether it was extracted directly from Babylonian mathematics. In any event, it is definitely more difficult to read than Book I material. Definition. Any rectangle is said to be contained by the two straight lines forming the right angle. Euclid never multiplies the length and width to obtain area. There is no such process. He does multiply numbers (integers) times length. Proposition II-1. If there are two straight lines, and one of them is cut into any number of segments whatever, the rectangle contained by the two straight lines is equal to the sum of the rectangles contained by the uncut straight line and each of the segments.
w a l b c
lw = l(a+b+c) = la+lb+lc
It should be apparent that this is the distributive law for multiplication through addition. Yet, it is expressed purely in terms of geometry.
Euclid
14
A B D E C
G F
Proof. Let A and BC be the two lines. Make the random cuts at D and E. Let BF be drawn perpendicular to BC and cut at G so that BG is the same as A. Complete the diagram as shown. Then BH is equal to BK, DL, EH Now argue that the whole is the sum of the parts. Proposition II-2. If a straight line be cut at random, the rectangle contained by the whole and both of the segments is equal to the square on the whole.
A C B
Euclid
15
Proposition II-4. If a straight line is cut at random, the square on the whole is equal to the squares on the segments and twice the rectangle contained by the segments.
b b
a a 2 2 2 (a+b) = a + b + 2ab
Note the simplicity of visualization and understanding for the binomial theorem for n = 2. Many propositions give geometric solutions to quadratic equations. Proposition II-5. If a straight line is cut into equal and unequal segments, the rectangle contained by the unequal segments of the whole together with the square on the straight line between the points of section is equal to the square on the half.
Euclid
16
b A b/2 C D x B
L E G
H F
This proposition translates into the quadratic equation (b x)x + (b=2 x)2 = (b=2)2 : Proposition II-14. To construct a square equal to a given rectilinear figure.
a E
c D C F G H
Proof. Assume a > c. Solve x2 = ac. Construct at the midpoint of AB, and produce the line EG of length (a + c)=2. Therefore length of the segment F G is (a c)=2. Extend the line CD to P and construct the line GH of length (a + c)=2 (H is on this line.). By the Pythagorean theorem the length of the line F H has square given by
a+c 2
ac 2
= ac
Euclid 4.5 The Elements Book III
17
Book III concerns circles, begins with 11 definitions about circles. For example, the definition of the equality of circles is given ( circles are equal if they have the same diameter). Tangency is interesting in that it relies considerably on visual intuition: Definition 2. A straight line is said to touch a circle which, meeting the circle and being produced, does not cut the circle. Definition 3. A segment of a circle is the figure contained by a straight line and a circumference of a circle. Other concepts are segments, angles of segments, and similarity of segments of circles are given. Euclid begins with the basics. Proposition III-1. To find the center of a given circle. Proposition III-2. If on the circumference of a circle two points be take at random, the straight line joining the points will fall within the circle. Proposition III-5. If two circles cut (touch) one another, they will not have the same center. The inverse problem: III-9. If a point be taken within a circle, and more than two equal straight lines fall from the point on the circle, the point taken is the center of the circle. The Elements Book III III-11. If two circles touch one another internally, and their centers be taken, the straight line joining their centers, if it be also produced, will fall on the point of contact.
Euclid
18
III-16. The straight line drawn at right angles to the diameter of a circle from its extremity will fall outside the circle, and into the space between the straight line and the circumference another straight line cannot be interposed; ... . Proposition III-31. (Thales Theorem) In a circle the angle in the semicircle is a right angle, that in a greater segment less than a right angle, and that in a less segment greater than a right angle; and further the angle of the greater segment is greater than a right angle, and the angle of the less segment less than a right angle. The Elements Book IV
4.6
16 theorems Construction of regular polygons was a preoccupation of the Greeks. Clearly equilateral triangles and squares can be constructed, that is, inscribed in a circle. Bisection allows any number of doublings, e.g. hexagons and octagons. The inscribed pentagon is a more challenging construction. This book is devoted to the circumscribing and inscribing regular and irregular polygons into circles. As ususal, Euclid begins with appropriate definitions. For example, a very general notion of inscribed figure is given. Definition 1. A rectilineal figure is said to be inscribed in a rectilineal figure when the respective angles of the inscribed figure lie on the respective sides of that in which it is inscribed. Definition 2. Similarly a figure is said to be circumscribed about a figure when the respective sides of the circumscribed figure pass through the respective angles of that about which it is circumscribed. Definitions 3 and 4 give the meaning of inscribed in and circumscribed about a circle; in the former case the angles are required to lie on the circumference in contrast with the sides. In all there are seven definitions. Even the most basic result is considered by Euclid as we see in the opening proposition. Proposition IV-1. Into a given circle to fit a straight line equal to a given straight line which is not greater than the diameter of the circle. For example, Proposition IV-5. About a given triangle to circumscribe a circle.
Euclid
19
Proposition IV-10. To construct an isosceles triangle having each of the angles at the base double of the remaining one. Proposition IV-10 is the key to proving the celebrated Proposition IV-11. In a given circle to inscribe an equilateral and equiangular pentagon.
A B
180 + 2 = 180 = 72
Pentagon
!"#"$
More regular figures.
The next regular figure to be inscribed in a circle was the 17-gon. But this is not in The Elements . Requiring more than 2100 years to find it, the key was understanding which polygon it should be. For this the spark of a young genius in the form of no less a mathematician than Carl Frederich Gauss (1777 - 1855) was needed. He discovered the 17-gon in 1796, at age 18. In fact, when he was a student at Gottingen, he began work on his major publication Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, one of the great classics of the mathematical literature. Toward the end of this work, he included this result about the 17-gon but more!!! He proved that the only regular polygons that can be inscribed in a circle have N = 2m p1 p2 : : : pr sides, where m is a integer and the p0 s are Fermat primes.
Euclid ? Fermat numbers are of the form 22 + 1:

n
20
where n is an integer. For the first few integers they are prime and are called Fermat primes. We have the following table of polygons that can be inscribed in a circle: n 0 1 2 3 4 22 + 1 3 5 17 65 65,537
n
discoverer ancients ancients Gauss Gauss Gauss
For many years, it was an open question as to whether all such numn bers, 22 + 1, primes? In about 1730 another young genius, Leonhard 5 Euler (1707 - 1783) factored the next one as 22 +1 = 4; 294; 967; 296 = 641 6; 700; 417 The Fermat numbers were not all primes. Indeed, no others are known as primes. A contemporary of Gauss, Fernidand Eisenstein (1823-1852) conjectured the following subset of the Fermat numbers consists only of primes: 22 + 1; 22 + 1; 22 + 1; 22
2 22 2 22
+ 1; : : :
This conjecture has not been verified. The first three are the Fermat primes, 5, 17, 65,537. The next number has 19,729 digits. Even though prime numbers are now known with millions of digits, this number, with not even 20,000 digits, is almost intractable. It is not a Mersenne number (i.e. a number of the form 2p 1, where p is a prime), so the Lucas-Lehmer test does not apply5 . This limits the tests that can be applied. The most primitive test, that of attempting to divide all primes with 10,000 or fewer digits would require vastly more than the storage capacity of all the computers on earth to hold them and far more than the computational power of them all to perform the calculations.6 So, another special test must be determined if the primality of such numbers is to be tested.
the chapter on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans to convince you of this, simply suppose that everyone on earth has a computer with 1000 gigabites of storage and that the governments has 100 times that collective amount. This gives less than 1014+10 = 1024 bytes of storage. Compare this with just the number of primes, not even the storage requirements, in the required range range, which exceeds 109995 bytes. Furthermore, if each of these computers operated at 1 teraflop (1 trillion floating point operations per second), only about 1037 computations could be carried out in the next century.
6 Just 5 See
Euclid 4.7 The Elements Book V 25 theorems
21
Book V treats ratio and proportion. Euclid begins with 18 definitions about magnitudes beginning with a part, multiple, ratio, be in the same ratio, and many others. Definition 1. A magnitude is a part of a magnitude, the less of the greater, when it measures the greater. This means that it divides the greater with no remainder. Definition 4. Magnitudes are said to have a ratio to one another which are capable, when multiplied, exceeding on another. This is essentially the Archimedian Axiom: If a < b, then there is an integer n such that na > b. In the modern theory of partially ordered spaces, a special role is played by those spaces which have the so-called Archimedian Property. Consider Definition 5 on same ratios devised by Eudoxus to reckon with incommensurables. Definition 5. Magnitudes are said to be in the same ratio, the first to the second and the third to the fourth, when, if any equimultiples whatever be taken of the first and third, and any equimultiples whatever of the second and fourth, the former equimultiples alike exceed, are alike equal to, or alike fall short of, the latter equimultiples respectively taken in corresponding order. In modern notation, we say the magnitudes, a; b; c; d are in the same ratio a : b = c : d if for all positive integers m and n ma > mc then nb > nd; and similarly for < and =. Subtly, this definition requires an infinity of tests to verify two sets of numbers are in the same ratio. Proposition V-1. If there be any number of magnitudes whatever which are, respectively, equimultiples of any magnitudes equal in multitude, then, whatever multiple one of the magnitudes is of one, that multiple also will all be of all. In modern notation, let the magnitudes be a1 ; a2 ; ; an and let m be the multiple. Then, ma1 + ma2 + + man = m(a1 + a2 + + an ): Proposition V-8. Of unequal magnitudes, the greater has to the same
Euclid
22
a greater ratio than the less has; and the same has to the less a greater ratio than it has to the greater. In modern term, let a > b, and c is given. Then a=c > b=c; and c=b > c=a: The Elements Book VI 33 theorems Book VI is on similarity of figures. It begins with three definitions. Definition 1. Similar rectilineal figures are such as have their angles severally equal and the sides about the equal angles proportional. Definition 2. A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the less. Definition 3. The height of any figure is the perpendicular drawn from the vertex to the base.
Euclid 4.8 The Elements Book VI
23
Proposition VI-1. Triangles and parallelograms which are under the same height are to one another as their bases.
Proposition VI-5. If two triangles have their sides proportional, the triangles will be equiangular and will have those angles equal which the corresponding sides subtend.
Proposition VI-30. To cut a given finite straight line in extreme and mean ratio.
AP : AC = PC : AP Golden Section
Euclid
24
The picture says.... 1 (a + b)2 = c2 + 4( ab) 2 a2 + 2ab + b2 = c2 + 2ab a2 + b2 = c2 Of course, you must prove all the similarity rigorously. The Elements Book VII 39 theorems
4.9
Book VII is the first book of three on number theory. Euclid begins with definitions of unit, number, parts of, multiple of, odd number, even number, prime and composite numbers, etc. Definition 11. A prime number is that which is measured by the unit alone. Definition 12. Numbers prime to one another are those which are measured by the unit alone as a common measure.
Euclid
25
Proposition VII-21. Numbers prime to one another are the least of those which have the same ratio with them. Proposition VII-23. If two numbers be prime to one another, the number which measures the one of them will be prime to the remaining number. Proposition VII-26. If two numbers be prime to two numbers, both to each, their products also will be prime to one another. Proposition VII-31. Any composite number is measured by some prime number. Proposition VII-32. Any number either is prime or is measured by some prime number.
4.10
The Elements Book VIII 27 theorems
Book VIII focuses on what we now call geometric progressions, but were called continued proportions by the ancients. Much of this is no doubt due to Archytas of Tarentum, a Pythagorean. Numbers are in continued proportion if a1 : a2 = a2 : a3 = : : : : We would write this as a1 = a; a2 = ar; a3 = ar2 ; a4 = ar3 ; : : : : which is of course the same thing. Proposition VII-1. If there be as many numbers as we please in continued proportion, and the extremes of them be prime to one another, the numbers are the least of those which have the same ratio with them. Consider 5:3 and 8:6 and 10:6 and 16:12. Proposition VIII-8. If between two numbers there are numbers in continued proportion with them, then, however any numbers are between them in continued proportion, so many will also be in continued proportion between numbers which are in the same ratio as the original numbers.
Euclid
26
Euclid concerns himself in several other propositions of Book VIII with determining the conditions for inserting mean proportional numbers between given numbers of various types. For example, Proposition VIII-20. If one mean proportional number falls between two numbers, the numbers will be similar plane numbers. In modern parlance, suppose a : x = x : b, then x2 = ab:
4.11
The Elements Book IX 36 theorems
The final book on number theory, Book IX, contains more familiar type number theory results. Proposition IX-20. Prime numbers are more than any assigned multitude of prime numbers. Proof. Let p1 ; : : : ; pn be all the primes. Define N = p1 p2 pn +1. Then, since N must be composite, one of the primes, say p1 j N . But this is absurd! 1 Proposition IX-35. If as many numbers as we please are in continued proportion, and there is subtracted from the second and the last numbers equal to the first, then, as the excess of the second is to the first, so will the excess of the last be to all those before it. We are saying let the numbers be a; ar; ar2 ; : : : ; arn , The the differences are a(r 1) and a(rn 1). Then, the theorem asserts that a=a(r 1) = (a + ar + + arn1 )=a(rn 1):
Euclid
27
Proposition 20 Prime numbers are more than any assigned multitude of prime numbers.
A, B, C.
Proposition 36 If as many numbers as we please beginning from an unit be set out continuously If double proportion, until the sum of all becomes prime, and if the sum multiplied into the last make some number, the product will be perfect.
For let as many numbers as we please, A, B, C, D, beginning from an unit be set out in double proportion, until the sum of all becomes prime, let E be equal to the sum, and let E by multiplying D make FG; I say that FG is perfect. For, however many A, B C, D are in multitude, let so many E, RK, L, M be taken in double proportion beginning from E; therefore, ex qequali as A is to D, so is E to M. [vii. 14] Therefore the product of E, D is equal to the product of A, M [vii. 19] and the product of E, D 1) is FG;
4.12
The Elements Book X 115 theorems
Many historians consider this the most important of the thirteen books. It is the longest and probably the best organized. The purpose is the classification of the incommensurables. The fact that the anathema to the Pythagoreans, the incommensurable is placed in Book X, the number of greatest significance to them, may be more than a coincidence. Perhaps a slight toward the Pythagoreans; perhaps a sense of humor if not, the irony is almost as remarkable. Definition 1. Those magnitudes are said to be commensurable which are measured by the same measure, and those incommensurable which cannot have any common measure. Note in the following definition how Euclid distinguishes magnitudes and lengths/areas. Definition 1. Straight lines are commensurable in square when the
Euclid
28
squares on them are measured by the same area, and incommensurable in square when the squares on them cannot possibly have any area as a common measure. The first proposition is fundamental. It is Eudoxus method of exhaustion. Proposition X-I. Two unequal magnitudes being given, if from the greater there is subtracted a magnitude greater than its half, and from that which is left a magnitude greater than its half, and if this process is repeated continually, there will be left some magnitude less that the lesser of the given magnitudes. This proposition allows an approximating process of arbitrary length. Proposition X-36. If two rational straight lines commensurable in square only be added together, the whole is irrational.
4.13
The Elements Book X1-XIII
The final three chapters of The Elements are on solid geometry and the use of a limiting process in the resolution of area and volume problems. For example, Proposition XII-2. Circles are to one another as the squares on the diameters. ? You will note there is no formula expressed. Proposition XII-7. An pyramid is a third part of the prism which has the same base with it an equal height. Proposition XII-18. Spheres are to one another in the triplicate ratio of their respective diameters.
Archimedes of Syracuse1
Archimedes of Syracuse (287 - 212 BCE), the most famous and probably the best mathematician of antiquity, made so many discoveries in mathematics and physics that it is difficult to point to any of them as his greatest. He was born in Syracuse, the principal city-state of Sicily, the son of the astronomer Phidias. He spent considerable time in Alexandria, where he studied with Euclids successors. It is there he met Conon of Samos (fl. 245 BCE) and Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 - 195 BCE), both leading mathematicians of their day. However, he resided most of his whole life in Syracuse, an intimate friend of the court of King Hieron II. He was an accomplished engineer, indeed he is said to have disdained mechanical invention, who loved pure mathematics. With one exception, his only extant works are on pure mathematics. His methods of proof and discovery, though, were based substantially upon mechanical principles as revealed in his treatise Method Concerning Mechanical Theorems. In fact, he seems to have disdained the source of his fame during his day, ingenious mechanical inventions, on which he left no written
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Archimedes
description. Said Plutarch, he possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of scientific knowledge that, thought these inventions had obtained for him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any written work on such subjects, .... Stories from Plutarch, Livy, and others describe machines invented by Archimedes for the defense of Syracuse. These include the catapult and the compound pulley. Also described is his instruments applying burning-mirrors. His fascination with geometry is beautifully described by Plutarch.2 Often times Archimedes servants got him against his will to the baths, to wash and anoint him, and yet being there, he would ever be drawing out of the geometrical figures, even in the very embers of the chimney. And while they were anointing of him with oils and sweet savors, with his figures he drew lines upon his naked body, so far was he taken from himself, and brought into ecstasy or trance, with the delight he had in the study of geometry. During the siege of Syracuse in the Second Punic War, inventions by Archimedes such as a catapult equally serviceable at a variety of ranges, caused great fear to the Roman attackers. Another invention, the compound pulley, was so powerfully built as to lift Roman ships from the sea and drop them back into it. However, the story that he used an array of mirrors, burning-mirrors, to destroy Roman ships is probably apocryphal. So much fear did these machines instill in the Romans that general Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the Roman commander, gave up on frontal assault and placed his hopes in a long siege. When at last Syracuse did fall in about 212 BCE, Archimedes was killed during the capture of Syracuse by the Romans Plutarch recounts this story of his killing: As fate would have it, Archimedes was intent on working out some problem by a diagram, and having fixed both his mind and eyes upon the subject of his speculation, he did not notice the entry of the Romans nor that the city was taken. In this transport of study a soldier unexpectedly came up to him and commanded that he accompany him. When he declined to do this before he had finished his problem, the enraged soldier drew his sword and ran him through. Marcellus was
2 Plutarch(c. 46 - 119 CE), was a Greek biographer and author whose works influenced the evolution of the essay, the biography, even into our own times.
Archimedes greatly saddened by this and arranged for Archimedes burial. Archimedes Works
It was to Conon that Archimedes frequently communicated his results before they were published. There were no journals, as such, in that time. Major works were developed into books. There are nine extant books of Archimedes, that have come to us. Substantially in the form of advanced monographs, they are not works for students nor for the dilettante, as each requires serious study. Almost certainly, they were not as widely copied or studied as other works such as The Elements . But how do we know about the works? Where did they come from? For most of the second millennium, the earliest sources of Archimedes works date from the Latin translations of Greek works made by William of Moerbeke (1215 - 1286). He used two Greek manuscripts. Both have disappeared, the first before 1311 and the second disappears about the 16th century. No earlier versions were known until about 1899, when an Archimedes palimpsest was listed among hundreds of other volumes in a library in Istanbul. In 1906, the great Greek mathematical scholar was able to begin his examination of it. A palimpsest is a document which has been copied over by another text. Two reasons are offered for doing this. First, parchment was expensive and reusing it was an economical measure. Second, at the time it was considered virtuous to copy over pagan texts. In the case at hand, the Archimedes palimpsest was covered over by a religious text. Moreover, the original sheets were folded in half, the resulting book of 174 pages having a sown binding. What Heiberg found were four books already known but which had been copied in the 10th century by a monk living in a Constantinople monastery. This version was independent of the two manuscripts used by William of Moerbeke. However, a new book was found. It was the Method concerning Mechanical Theorems. This book, though known to have been written, had not been found to that time. Its importance lies in that in this volume, Archimedes described his method of discovery of many of his other theorems. The story of the Archimedes palimpsest over that past century is interesting with suggestions of theft and manuscript alteration. Having
Archimedes
disappeared in 1922, it reappeared in 1998 as an auction item displayed by Christies in New York. It sold at auction for two million dollars in October of 1998 to an anonymous buyer. This buyer has agreed to make the manuscript available for scholarly research. For further details, the interested reader should consult http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Greek sources 1.html The works themselves are On Plane Equilibria, Volume I Quadrature of a Parabola On Plane Equilibria, Volume II On Spirals
On the Sphere and Cylinder, Volumes I and II On Conoids and Spheroids The Sand-Reckoner On Floating Bodies, Volumes I and II On Measurement of the Circle Method Concerning Mechanical Theorems Another volume Stomachion, is known in fragments only. Yet another volume, a collection of Lemmas Liber Assumptorum comes down to us from the Arabic. In its present form, it could not been written by Archimedes as his name is referenced in it, though the results are likely due to Archimedes. Overall, we may say that he worked in the Geometry of Measurement in distinction to the Geometry of Form advanced by his younger colleague/competitor Apollonius (260 - 185 BCE). His methods anticipated the integral calculus 2,000 years before Newton and Leibniz. In the following subsections, we describe some of the results, recognizing the impossibility of rendering anything near an adequate description of the overwhelming depth and volume of his works.
Archimedes 1.1 Measurement of the Circle
Among Archimedes most famous works is Measurement of the Circle, in which he determined the exact value of to be between the values 3 10 71 and 3 1 . This result is still used today, and most certainly every reader of 7 these notes has used 22 = 3 1 to approximate . He obtained this result 7 7 by circumscribing and inscribing a circle with regular polygons having up to 96 sides. However, the proof requires two fundamental relations about the perimeters and areas of these inscribed and circumscribed regular polygons. The computation. With respect to a circle of radius r, let b1 = B1 = an inscribed hexagon with perimeter p1 and area a1 an circumscribed hexagon with perimeter P1 and area A1
Further, let b2 ; : : : ; bn denote the regular inscribed 62 : : : 62n polygons, similarly, B2 : : : Bn for the circumscribed polygons. The following formulae give the relations between the perimeters and areas of these 6 2n polygons. Pn+1 = 2pn Pn pn + Pn
q
pn+1 = An+1 =
p pn Pn+1 2an+1 An an+1 + An
an+1 =
an An
Using n-gons up to 96 sides he derives the following Proposition 3. The ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter is less than 3 1 and greater than 3 10 . 7 71 1.2 On the Sphere and Cylinder
In Volume I of On the Sphere and Cylinder Archimedes proved, among many other geometrical results, that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a circumscribed cylinder. In modern notation, we have
Archimedes the familiar formula.
2 Vsphere = V circumscribed cylinder 3 This he considered his most significant accomplishments, requesting that a representation of a cylinder circumscribing a sphere be inscribed on his tomb. He established other fundamental results including Proposition 33. The surface of any sphere is equal to four times the greatest circle on it. Similarly, but for cones, we have Proposition 34. Any sphere is four times the cone which has as its base equal to the greatest circle in the sphere and its height equal to the radius of the sphere. From this of course follows Archimedes relation above. In Volume II, Archimedes proves a number of results such as Proposition 1. Given a cone or a cylinder, to find a sphere equal to the cone or to the cylinder. Proposition 3. To cut a given sphere by a plane so that the surfaces of the segments may have to one another a given ratio. Proposition 9. Of all segments of spheres which have equal surfaces the hemisphere is the greatest in volume. On Conoids and Spheroids
1.3
In On Conoids and Spheroids, he determined volumes of segments of solids formed by the revolutions of a conic, such as a parabola, about an axis. In modern terms these are problem of integration. For example, we have
y
Proposition 21. Any segment of a paraboloid of revolution is half as large again as the cone or segment of a cone which has the same base and the same axis.
Archimedes
Though easy to verify using calculus, this result requires a careful and lengthly proof using only the standard method of the day, i.e. double reductio ad absurdum.
1.4
On Floating Bodies
In On Floating Bodies Archimedes literally invented the whole study of hydrostatics. In one particular result he was able to compute the maximum angle that a (paraboloid) ship could list before it capsized and he did it without calculus! This result, a tour de force of computation, is not nearly as well known as the story which describes Archimedes crying Eureka after discovering whether a newly made crown was truly pure gold. The case of the fraudulent gold crown. King Hieron II commissioned the manufacture of a gold crown. Suspecting the goldsmith may have substituted silver for gold, he asked Archimedes to determine its authenticity. He was not allowed to disturb the crown in any way. What follows is a quote from Vitruvius.3 The solution which occurred when he stepped into his bath and caused it to overflow was to put a weight of gold equal to the crown and know to be pure, into a bowl which was filled with water to the brim. Then the gold would be removed and the kings crown put in, in its place. An alloy of lighter silver would increase the bulk of the crown and cause the bowl to overflow. There are some technical exceptions to this method. A better solution applies Archimedes Law of Buoyancy and his Law of the Lever: Suspend the wreath from one end of a scale and balance it with an equal mass of gold suspended from the other end. Immerse the balanced apparatus into a container of water. If the scale remains in balance then the wreath and the gold have the same volume, and so the wreath has the same density as pure gold. But if the scale tilts in the direction of the gold, then the wreath has a greater volume
3 Vitruviuss comments can be found in his work De architectura (about 27 BCE) a comprehensive treatise on architecture consisting of 10 books.
Archimedes
than the gold. For more details, consult the Archimedes home page, http://www.mcs.drexel.edu./~crorres/Archimedes/index.html. Sand-Reckoner
1.5
The Sand-Reckoner is a small treatise that is addressed to Gelon, son of Hieron. Written for the layman, it nevertheless contains some highly original mathematics. One object of the book was to repair the inadequacies of the Greek numerical notation system by showing how to express a huge number, in particular the number of grains of sand that it would take to fill the whole of the universe. Apparently independent of the Babylonian base 60 system, Archimedes devised a place-value system of notation, with a base of 100,000,000. He constructed numbers up to 8 1017 . The work also gives the most detailed surviving description of the heliocentric system of Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernican. On the Equilibrium of Planes
1.6
In a treatise of two volumes Archimedes discovered fundamental theorems concerning the center of gravity of plane figures and solids. His most famous theorem gives the weight of a body immersed in a liquid, called Archimedes principal. Quadrature of a Parabola
1.7
In the Quadrature of a Parabola, Archimedes proved using the Method of Exhaustion that area segment ABC = 4 4ABC 3
where the triangle and parabolic segment have the same base and height. The standard technique of proof, the method of exhaustion, was used.
Archimedes
C
Segment of a parabola and inscribed triangle. Note: the slope at B is the same as the line AC.
1.8
Spirals
In The Spiral Archimedes squared the circle using the spiral.
He does this by proving that, in length, OQ = arc P S. Note, PQ is tangent to the spiral at P and 6 P OQ is a right angle.
Archimedes
10
He also determined the area of one revolution (0 2 ) of r = a to be4 1 Area = [(a2)2 ] 3
That is, the area enclosed by the spiral arc of one revolution is one third of the area of the circle with center at the origin and of radius at the terminus of the spiral arc.
4 In
polar coordinates the area of the curve r = f () is given by

1 2
f () = a, we have
R 2
0
1 2
(a)2
d =
4 2 3 a . 3
R 2
0
f 2 () d. For the function
Archimedes
11
He also showed how to trisect angles using the spiral. Suppose the particular angle to be trisected is / AOB. Construct circles with center O that intersect the spiral. Construct the line segment OD and mark the point C. Trisect the segment CD and construct circles with center O with the respective radii at the trisection points. Since the spiral sweeps out the radius in exact proportion to the respective angle, the new circles will intersect the spiral at equal angles from the lines OA and OB. The angle between them will be the same, as well. Thus the angles / AOB is trisected.
In another argument using a compass and ruler, he trisected an angle. Using the diagram to the right, we trisect the angle / DOA. First, extend the diameter to B in such a way that jBCj = j0Cj. This is the part that requires the ruler. Now measure the angles. Note that = 2. From this it follows that = 4 : Finally observe that + + = . Substitute = 4 and solve for to get = 1 . 3 1.9 The Method
In Method Concerning Mechanical Theorems Archimedes reveals how he discovered some of his theorems. The method is basically a geometric method of the lever. He balances lines as one might balance weights. This work was found relatively recently, having being rediscovered only in 1906.
Archimedes 2 Inventions
12
Archimedes mechanical skill together with his theoretical knowledge enabled him to construct many ingenious machines. Archimedes spent some time in Egypt, where he invented a device now known as Archimedes screw. This is a pump, originally used for irrigation and for draining mines. It is still used in many parts of the world. The image below is but one example.5
From Pappus we have learned that in connection with his discovery of the solution to the problem of moving a given weight by a given force, that Archimedes upon applying the law of the lever6 is to have said, Give me a place to stand on, and I can move the earth. Another story related to this was the challenge to Archimedes by King Hieron to give a practical demonstration of this law. Thereupon, Archimedes, using only a compound pulley, steadily and smoothly pulled a ship from the sea onto dry dock. According to Proclus, Hieron was so impressed by Archimedes that he declared, from that day forth Archimedes was to be believed in everything that he might say. He is also said to have invented a sphere to imitate the motions of the sun, moon, and five planets known at that time. Cicero, who may have actually seen it, reported that it described details of the periodic nature of the rotations and even showed eclipses of the sun. How it operated is conjectural, but water power is often attributed.
5 An interesting website maintained by Drexel University mathematics Professor Chris Rorres, located at http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Screw/Applications.html, shows many illustrations of Archimedian screws from the past and present. The illustration above can be found at this site. 6 Archimedes was a master at the law of the lever and related mechanical principles, this is true. However, it is certain that this law must have been known much earlier in antiquity. In particular, the Egyptians must have applied some form of it in the construction of the pyramids.
Archimedes 3 Influence
13
The magnitude and originality of Archimedes achievement is monumental. However, his influence on ancient mathematics was limited. Many reasons could be attributed, one being that mathematics in the Greek world was in something of an eclipse of his mathematics. Another is the hegemony of the Romans, who had little interest in theoretical works, particularly mathematics. Though some of his results, such as approximations to by 22 , became commonplace, his deeper results 7 of hydrostatics and quadrature were never continued in any important way as far as is known. This seems true, despite his publication of The Method, in which he hoped to show others the basis of his techniques. Nearly a millennium was to follow, when in the 8th and 9th centuries there were some substantial Arabic contributions that seem to be inspired by Arabic translations of Archimedes works. The greatest influence of his work came much later in 16th and 17th centuries with the printing of texts derived from the Greek. Knowledge of these works was reflected in the work of the greatest mathematicians and physicists of the day, Galileo (1564 - 1642) and Kepler (1571 - 1630). Later, more mathematically sound editions such as David Rivaults edition and Latin translation (1615) of the complete works was profoundly influential on mathematicians of a stature no less than Ren Descartes (1595 - 1650) and Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665). The ancient works including Archimedes cast a pale across these times challenging mathematicians of the day to understand and advance the ancient results. It is widely regarded that the greatest advances of the 16th century would have be delayed without them. Had The Method been discovered earlier than the late 19th century, modern mathematics may have taken an entirely different course concluding, of course, the same essential results but with mechanical underpinnings instead of geometrical ones.
The Hellenistic Period1

In this brief section, we show what type of problems mathematicians solved, and the extent of Greek mathematics before the collapse of the mathematical world in about 400 CE.
Aristarchus of Samos (CA. 310-230 BCE)
Aristarchus of Samos was considered by the ancients, particularly Vitruvius2 , who considered him to be one of the few great men knowledgeable in all sciences, especially astronomy and mathematics. Note that his dates are only surmised. For example, he lived before the Sand Reckoner of Archimedes, a work published before 216 BCE. He is also known to have observed the summer solstice in about 280 BCE. Perhaps, foremost among them is that he formulated the Copernican hypothesis He was the first to formulate the Copernican hypotheses and is sometimes called the Ancient Copernican. His heliocentric theory was never accepted in his day and remained dormant until it was proposed again by Copernicus. His contributions to science and mathematics are many. He discovered an improved sundial, with a concave hemispherical circle. In supporting his heliocentric theory, he countered the non parallax objection by asserting that the stars to be so far distant that parallax was not measurable. For this he needed the following measure of distance to the stars. distance(earth, stars) distance(radius of the sun) He also determined a more accurate estimate of the solar year. He wrote as well on light and colors. He wrote On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, in which by the way the heliocentric ideas are not mentioned or in any event are not present in the copied version extant. He assumes the
G. Donald Allen comments can be found in his work De architectura (about 27 BCE) which was a comprehensive treatise on architecture. Divided into 10 books, it deals with city planning, building materials, temple construction, the use of the Greek orders, public buildings such as theaters, private buildings, flooring, hydraulics, clocks, mensuration and astronomy, and engines. Though a Roman living probably during the time of Augustus, his outlook is essentially Hellenistic.
2 Vitruviuss 1 2000, c
The Hellenistic Period
following two propositions that are equivalents of the following modern statements.
sin 1. If 0 < < , then the ratio decreases, and the 2 tan increases as increases from 0 to . ratio 2 2. If 0 < < < then 2 sin tan < < sin tan (now known as Aristarchus theorem) He sets out to prove a number of results including, (1) When the moon is half full, the angle between the lines of sight to the sun and the moon is less than a right angle by 1/30 of a quadrant. From this he concluded that the distance from the earth to the sun is more than 18 but less than 20 times the distance from the earth to the moon. (Actual 400). Without trigonometry he was aware of and used the fact that 1 1 < sin 3 < : 20 18 This result gave a great improvement over all previous estimates.
(2) The angular diameters of the sun and the moon at the center of the earth are equal. (3) The diameter of the sun has to the diameter of the earth a ratio greater than 19:3 but less than 43:6. (Actual: 109:1) The proofs of all are geometrical in nature as we would expect. He also made other trigonometric estimates without trigonometry.
The Hellenistic Period 2 Archimedes, (287 - 212 BCE)
Looming far above almost all mathematicians of this period is Archimedes. His contributions are many and his mathematics clearly the deepest of all. A separate chapter is devoted to his life and works.
Apollonius of Perga (CA 262 BCE 190 BCE)
? Apollonius was born in Perga in Pamphilia (now Turkey), but was possibly educated in Alexandria where he spent some time teaching. Very little is known of his life. He seems to have felt himself a rival of Archimedes. In any event he worked on similar problems. However, in contrast to the older master we may say that Apollonius worked on the Geometry of Form as distinguished from the Geometry of Measurement. He was known as the great geometer mainly because of his work on conics. Apollonius was 25 years younger than Archimedes, and they together with Euclid stood well above all other mathematicians of the first century of this period. Because of them, this period is sometimes called the golden age of Greek mathematics. Apollonius wrote many books. All but one are lost. Among those we know he wrote are: 1. Quick Delivery 2. Cutting-off of a Ratio 3. Cutting-off of an Area 4. Tangencies 5. Vergings (Inclinations) 6. Plane Loci In his book Quick Delivery (lost), he gives the approximation to as 3.1416. We do not know his method. His only known work is On Conics in 8 Books of which only 4 survive in Greek. The 8th book is lost completely and the books V -
VII exist in Arabic. The fourth and later books were dedicated to King Attalus I (247 - 197 BCE), we have an approximate date of publication. The first two books were dedicated to Eudemus of Pergamum. It became immediately the authoritative treatise on conics, being referenced by many mathematicians. In about 500 CE, Eutocius wrote a commentary on them. It is this edition, altered somewhat in the ninth century in Constantinople, that our best manuscripts are derived. The editio princeps of the Greek text is due substantially to Edmund Halley3 in 1710. Originally, Gregory works on the Books I - IV, but died when the work was in progress. Features: Using the double oblique cone he constructs the conics parabola, ellipse, hyperbola, whose names he fixed for all time.
He made use of the idea of Symptoms which were similar to equations. There results an analytic-like geometry but without coordinates! These come from what can be called a symptoma (from the Greek 0 !), a constant relation between certain magnitudes which vary according to the position of an arbitrary point on the curve. The symptoma are very much like a modern equation. Even Archimedes used these relations for parabolas, ellipses and hyperbolas in his works.
3 We will see in a later chapter that it was Edmund Halley (1656 - 1743) that was instrumental in persuading Isaac Newton to publish his monumental Principia Mathematica.
The Hellenistic Period We consider two typical results found in On Conics.
Proposition I-33. If AC is constructed, where jAEj = jEDj, then AC is tangent to the parabola.
Proof. Assume AC cuts the parabola at K. Then CK lies within the parabola. Pick F on that segment and construct a ? to AD at B and G on the curve. Then jBF j2 jABj2 jGBj2 > = : jCDj2 jCDj2 jADj2 ()
Since G and C lie on the curve, the symptom shows that jBGj2 = jBGj2 jBEj pjEBj and jCDj2 = pjEDj implies jCDj2 = jDEj . This implies from (*) that jABj2 jABj2 jBEj 4jBEj jEAj > > ; and so : jDEj jADj2 4jDEj jEAj jADj2 Thus 4jBEjjEAj > 4jDEjjEAj . Since jAEj = jDEj it follows that jABj2 jADj2 jADj2 = 4jDEjjEAj and since jBEj > jEAj it follows that 4jBEj jEAj > jABj2 . (Why?) Since AB = EA + EB, this is a contradiction.
The Hellenistic Period Proposition I-34. (ellipse) Choose A so that jBHj jAHj = jAGj jBGj
Then AC is tangent to the ellipse at C.
It is apparent that these ymptoma used by Apollonius and by s others before him were a definite precursor to analytic geometry. About two millennia would pass before coordinate geometry became common place.
The Apollonius model for the sun used epicycles. The sun rotates about a circle whose center revolves about the earth. The directions of rotation are opposed. The ratio ED := eccentricity DS
There was also the eccenter model, designed to explain the seasons better. He improved upon the numbering system of Archimedes by using the base 104 . In the works of Apollonius and Archimedes, Greek mathematics reached its zenith. Without his predecessors, the foremost being Euclid, Apollonius never would have reached this height. Together, they dominated geometry for two thousand years. With the works of Apollonius, mathematics was now well beyond the reaches of the dedicated amateur. Only a professional would be able to advance this theory further.
The Hellenistic Period 4 Hipparchus (fl. 140 BCE)
Hipparchus of Nicaea was a scientist of the first rank. So carefully accurate were his observations and calculations that he is known in antiquity as the lover of truth. He worked in nearly every field of astronomy and his reckonings were canon for 17 centuries. Only one work of his remains, a commentary on Phainomena of Eudoxus and Aratus of Soli. We know him, however, from Ptolemys The Almagest. Indeed the Ptolemaic Theory should be called Hipparchian. His mathematical studies of astronomical models required a computation of a table of sines. He constructed a table of chords for astronomical use. Here a chord was given by Crd = 2R sin =2 in modern notation.
Hipparchus knew the half angle formula as well. He could compute the chord of every angle from 7 1 to 180 Using Babylonian observa2 tions, he improved the lunar, solar and sidereal years. He reckoned the solar year at 365 1 days, less 4 minutes, 48 seconds an error of 6 4 minutes from current calculations. He computed the lunar month at 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2 1 seconds less than one second off. 2 He also computed the synodic periods of the planets with astonishing accuracy. He estimated the earth-moon distance at 250,000 miles, less than 5 percent off. Hipparchus almost concluded the orbit of the earth about the sun
to be elliptic through his theory of eccentrics to account for orbital irregularities. In about 129 BCE, he made a catalog of 1080 known fixed stars in terms of celestial longitude and latitude. Comparison of his chart with that of Timochares from 166 years earlier, he made his most brilliant observation. Noting a 20 shift in the apparent position of the stars he predicted the precession of the equinoxes4 the advance, day by day, of the moment when the equinoctial points come to the meridian. He calculated the precession to be 36 seconds/year 14 seconds slower than the current estimate of 50 seconds.
Claudius Ptolemy(100-178 AD)
Ptolemy was an astronomer/mathematician He wrote The Geography a compilation of places in the known world along with their geographic coordinates. His most enduring work is the Mathematical Collection, later called The Almagest, from the Arabic al-magisti meaning the greatest. It consists of 13 books, which contains 1. table of chords 1=2 180 sexagesimal. 1=2 intervals R = 60, in
2. He solve triangles, planes and spherical triangles. 3. The book was very algorithmic this was a text/tutorial not a research monograph. 4. We also find the well known Ptolemys Theorem.
4 equal
nights
The Hellenistic Period Theorem. jACj jBDj = jADj jBCj + jABj jDCj
10
The Almagest was the standard reference work for astronomers until the time of Copernicus.
Heron of Alexandria 1st century A.D.
Very little is known of Herons life. However we do have his book Metrica which was more of a handbook for mathematics than what would now be called a research monograph. In it we find the famous Herons formula. For any triangle of sides a; b; and c, and with perimeter s = a + b + c, the areas is given by A = (s(s a)(s b)(s c))1=2 : He also gives formulas for the area of regular polygons of n sides, each of length a: A3 A5 A7 13 2 a 30 5 2 a 3 43 2 a 12
Heron gives an example of finding the cube of a non-cube number. The number is A = 100. Here are his instructions,
The Hellenistic Period Take the nearest cube numbers to 100 both above and below. These are 125 and 64. Now compute the differences 125 100 = 25 100 64 = 36 Multiply 5 by 36 to get 180 and then add 100 to get 280. Take 9 the fraction 180 = 14 and add to the smaller cube obtaining 280 9 4 14 This is as nearly as possible the cube root (cubic side) of 100 units.
11
Just how Heron arrived at this method, and indeed, just what the method is we can only conjecture. However, in Heath5 we find the conjecture of Wertheim. Allowing the (positive) differences to be d1 and d2 , and the cube roots of the higher and lower cube to be a1 and a2 , an approximation can be taken as a1 + a2 d a 2 d1 + a 1 d2
Such was the state of the art for determining cube roots in the first century AD. In fact, with just elementary methods, it can be shown that this approximation is quite good, with accuracy exceeding that achieved by application of the differential method.6 Nicomachus of Gerasa(fl. 100 CE)
Nicomachus was probably a neo-Pythagorean as he wrote on numbers and music. The period from 30BCE to 641 CE is sometimes called the Second Alexandrian School. He studied in Alexandria. Only two of his books are extant: 1. Introduction to Arithmetic 2. Introduction to Harmonics A third book on geometry is lost.
Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, II, Dover, New York, page 341. differential method: Approximate f (x) by f (x) f ! (a)(x a) + f (a) where both f (a) and f ! (a) are easily computed.
6 The 5 Thomas
12
In the first of the works Introduction to Arithmetic given in two books we have in Book I a classification of integers no without proofs For example we have even even (powers of two) even odd (doubles of odd) odd even (all others) odd: primes composites perfect: c alculates 6, 28, 496, 8128 ala Euclid ` Also, Nicomachus provides a classification of ratios of numbers. Assume a=b is completely reduced form of A=B. (i.e. a and b are relative prime) relation a = nb b = na a=b+1 a+1=b a = nb + 1 a = nb + k 1 < k < b etc. ratio of A to B is a multiple submultiple super particular sub super particular multiple super particular multiple super particular even:
In Book II Nicomachus discusses plane and solid numbers but again with no proofs. (Were the proofs removed in the many translations?) He considers the very Pythagorean: triangular numbers square numbers pentagonal numbers hexagonal numbers heptagonal numbers
The Hellenistic Period He notes an interesting result about cubes: 1 3+5 7 + 9 + 11 13 + 15 + 17 + 19 = = = = = 1 8 27 64
13
This should be compared with the summation of odd numbers to achieve squares. (Recall, the square numbers of Pythagoras.) The other known work, Introduction to Arithmetic was a handbook designed for students, primarily. It was written at a much lower level than Euclids Elements but was studied intensively in Europe and the Arabic World throughout the early Middle Ages.
8 8.1
Other Great Geometers Hypsicles of Alexandria
(fl. 175 BCE) added a fourteenth book to the Elements on regular solids. In short, it concerns the comparison of the volumes of the icosahedron and the dodecahedron inscribed in the same sphere. ? In another work, Risings, we find for the first time in Greek mathematics the right angle divided in Babylonian manner into 90 degrees. He does not use exact trigonometry calculations, but only a rough approximation. For example, he uses as data the times of rising for the signs from Aries to Virgo as an arithmetic progression. ? He also studied the polygonal numbers, the nth one of which is given by 1 n[2 + (n 1)(a 2)]: 2 8.2 Diocles of Carystus, fl. 180 BCE
Diocles of Carystus invented the cissoid, or ivy shaped curve. It was used for the duplication problem. In modern terms its equation can be
The Hellenistic Period written as
14
In fact, what we know of Diocles comes from references by Eutocius (6th cent. A.D.) to Apollonius Conics in his version of Diocles, Burning Mirrors. Since the Cissoid was references by Geminus, who succeeded Apollonius, we have dates on Diocles of 190-180 B.C, the references to Apollonius an addition by Eutocius. ? Diocles also solved an open problem posed by Archimedes, that of dividing a sphere into two parts whose volumes have a prescribed ratio. (Compare this with the result of Archimedes: To cut a given sphere by a plane so that the surfaces of the segments may have to one another a given ratio. He was able to solve certain cubics by intersecting an ellipse and a hyperbola. He studied refraction and reflection in the book On Burning Mirrors. However, this book may actually be a combination of three short works, one on burning mirrors, one on doubling the cube by intersecting parabolas, and the third on the problem of Archimedes. 8.3 Nicomedes,(fl. 260 BCE)
y 2 (a x) = x3 :
Nicomedes wrote Introduction Arithmetica. He discovered the conchoid and used it for angle trisection and finding two mean proportionals. We say the x and y are two mean proportionals between a and b if a : x = x : y = y : b. Of course this amounts to solving the for the intersection of the parabola ay = x2 and y 2 = bx. The conchoid is given by r = a sec d:
The little we know of these results come from Pappus (c. 350 CE) who described them and Eutocius (6th century CE) who indicated Nicomedes great, even boastful, pride in his discovery. Pappus further associates Nicomedes with Dinostratus and others as having applied the quadratrix, invented by Hippias (c. 460 BCE), for squaring the circle. 8.4 Eratosthenes of Cyrene, (c. 276 - c. 195 BCE)
Eratosthenes achieved distinction in many fields and ranked second only to the best in each. His admirers call him the second Plato and some
15
called him beta, indicating that he was the second of the wise men of antiquity. By the age of 40, his distinction was so great that Ptolemy III made him head of the Alexandrian Library. He wrote a volume of verse and a history of comedy, as well. He wrote mathematical monographs and devised mechanical means of finding mean proportions in continued proportion between two straight lines. He also invented the sieve for determining primes. This sieve is based on a simple concept: Lay off all the numbers, then mark of all the multiples of 2, then 3, then 5, and so on. A prime is determined when a number is not marked out. So, 3 remains uncovered after the multiples of two are marked out; 5 remains uncovered after the multiples of two and three are marked out. Although it is not possible to determine truly large primes in this fashion, the sieve was used to determine early tables of primes. 7 In a remarkable achievement he attempted the measurement of the earths circumference, and hence diameter. Using a deep well in Syene (nowadays Aswan) and an Obelisk in Alexandria, he measured the angle cast by the sun at noonday in midsummer at both places. He measured the sun to be vertical in Syene and making an angle equal to 1/50 of a circle at Alexandria he measured the circumference of the earth to be 25,000 miles. Remember, this measurement of the radius of the earth was made in 250 B.C. Heres the diagram:
In modern terms, we have distance = radiusangle. Using the angle to be 1/50 of a circle, we obtain
7 An interesting Java applet demonstrating this may be found at Peter Alfelds web site: http://www.math.utah.edu/ alfeld/Eratosthenes.html
The Hellenistic Period 50 5000 = 250; 000 stades = 25; 000 miles
16
He also calculated the distance between the tropics as 11 of the circum83 ference, which make the obliquity of the ecliptic 230 510 2000 , an error of 1/2 of one percent. Having measured the earth he set out to describe it, compiling accounts of all voyagers. He advocated regarding each person not as a Greek or Babylonian, but as an individual with individual merits certainly a modern-sounding tenet. It is said that in his old age he became blind and committed suicide by starvation. 8.5 Perseus (fl. 75 BCE)
Perseus discovered spiric sections, curves obtained by cutting solids, not cones. In modern terms a spire is given by (x2 + y 2 + z 2 + c2 a2 )2 = 4c2 (z 2 + x2 ) 8.6 Zenodorus (fl. 180 BCE)
About Zenodorus we know only by his reference to a result of Archimedes and his style of writing that he must have succeeded Archimedes but not by very much. In his book On Isoperimetric Problems, Zenodorus studied isoperimetric figures (same perimeter-different shape), a subject with a long history in Greek mathematics. This subject is extremely difficult and during the 18th century evolved into the Calculus of Variations. Indeed, even the great Isaac Newton was challenged to solve a difficult problem in this area, the so-called Brachistochone problem.8 This result, of course, was well beyond the technical level of Greek mathematics. Other modern problems include the soap bubble problem and others. However, Zenodorus (and later Pappus) offered some credibly difficult theorems. Here are a few typical results. Proposition. Of all regular polygons of equal perimeter, that is greatest in areas has the most angles.
8 Given two points in space, one higher than the other. If a wire is attached to the points what shape should it have for a frictionless bead to slide from the highest point to the lowest in least time.
17
Proposition. A circle is greater than any regular polygon of equal contour. Proposition. Of all polygons of the same number of sides and equal perimeter the equilateral and equiangular polygon is the greatest in area.
August 27, 2000
Ancient Algebra1
Origins.
Our word Algebra is derived from the Arabic expression al-jabr wal muqabala which occurs in the title of the first Arabic text on algebra written by Al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century. We have the words: Al jabr restoration or completion (add equals to equals to eliminate negative terms) Al-muqabala reduction or balancing (cancelling terms that occur on both sides of an equation) So, to Al-Khwarizmi, Algebra is the art of reducing and solving equations. In modern algebra, the emphasis has shifted to structure. Its roots started with the work of Galois on the possibility of solving equations by means of radicals (1830). Three Kinds of Algebra
In ancient times there were three kinds of algebra. A. Mixed Algebra. This is Babylonnian type in which line segments and areas, etc. are added together and set equal to numbers. B. Numerical Algebra. Herein only rational numbers m=n are admitted as coefficients and solutions of equations. (cf. Diophantus)
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Ancient Algebra
C. Geometric Algebra. Here line segments, areas, and volumes are kept strictly apart, e.g. when lengths are multiplied, area results. This is found in Greek mathematics, we know, but also in Chinese and Indian mathematics. Solutions to quadratics and linear equations are accomplished geometrically. In this connection, modern mathematicians such as Decartes, solved geometric problems by first converting them to algebraic ones and then the solutions back to geometric terms.
Diophantus, ca. 2401

1 Introduction
So little is known of Diophantus, that the dates of his life are given in the two century range 150 AD - 350 AD, likely 250 AD. He is believed to have lived to be about 84 years. According to tradition his age is determined from the \conundrum", dating from the fthsixth century: God granted him to be a boy for the sixth part of his life, and adding a twelfth part to this, He clothed his cheeks with down; He lit him the light of wedlock after a seventh part, and five years after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-born wretched child; after attaining the measure of half his fathers life, chill Fate took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years he ended his life. 2 Works
Diophantus was prolic. He wrote Arithmetica (13 Books { only 6 are now Extant) On Polygonal Numbers of which only fragments now exist Porisms (may have originally been part of Arithmetica, as in the latter they are referenced as though they are there In ancient and even in more recent times, commentaries would frequently be written on notable books. Indeed, one measure of the book's value to the professional community is the number of commentaries written on it. For Arithmetica commentaries were written by
1 2000, c
G. Donald Allen
Diophantus
Hypatia, daughter of Theon of Alexandria, who commented only on the rst 6 books. Psellus 11th century, Georgius Pachymeres (1240-1310) M. Plamides (1260-1310) several Arab mathematicians Translations of Arithmetica: Regionontanus { 1463 rst to call attention to Diophantus. Rafael Bombelli { 1570 translated a manuscript found in the Vatican. It was not published but was included in his own book Algebra (1572). Wilhelm Holzman (aka Xylander) { produced an excellent Latin translation in 1575. Bachet { 1621, published the present standard edition. The second edition was carelessly produced, but does contain the epochmaking notes of Fermat { the editor was S. Fermat. Simon Stevin 1585, French version of Books I{IV based on Xylander. Otto Schultz { 1822 g German versions based on Bachet. G. Wertheria 1890
Arithmetica
Before considering several of the types of results found in Arithmetica it is worth taking a few moments to consider a little background about algebra and the types of problems Diophantus solves. In the rst case, because geometrical reasoning is not particularly penalized by rhetoric and was the dominant mathematical form of the day, algebra was compelled to follow suit. However, the problems solved by Diophantus are every bit as tricky today as they were two millenia ago.
Diophantus
To be specic, we may ask what was the form of algebra in these very early days? There are roughly three classications of algebra centered on the form of presentation. 1. Rhetorical algebra complete prose. 2. Syncopated Algebra use of some abbreviations and symbols { Diophantus and latter to early 17th century 3. Symbolic Algebra complete symbolic notation { no prose. The last form did not appear until relatively recent times. Symbolism was not in anything near wide usage until the early seventeenth century. Pure symbolism in mathematical expression is unquestionably a contributing factor that has resulted in the explosion of mathematics dating from that time, which if anything is expanding today at an ever increasing pace2 . Diophantus wrote with limited symbols, but it must be surmised that after a length of time he must have developed a deep intuition and problem familiarity that permitted him to use many abbreviations (semi-symbolism) that never appeared in the published works. First of all the problems of Arithmetica are algebraic. Diophantus was not the rst to consider such problems nor was he the originator of his principle technique, that of false position. Indeed, the Egyptians used the method of false position to solve relatively simple algebraic equations. Recall the solution of the problem x + 1 x = 19 7 was solved rst by assuming that x = 7 and then correcting the false solution by multiplication 7 19 . Other, similar, problems were 8 solved by this method as well. We have also seen the Babylonian mathematicians solve simple linear systems using a false assumption. In Heron's Metrica several indeterminate problems are posed. Indeterminate problems are of a type where there may be several solutions and the student is asked to nd one or all of them. In most of these problems the student is asked to nd an integer or rational solutions. Here is an example of one such problem.
2 Equally, one might argue that modern computers and computer algebra systems, with their immense numeric and symbolic computational power may contribute to another explosive wave of mathematical development, one that has only just begun. To be sure, the powerful mathematics is being done today without any technology whatever and will continue throughout next millennium. However, the opportunities that modern technology afford may inspire new directions of research impossible without them, just as symbols permitted four centuries ago.
Diophantus
Example. Find two rectangles for which the perimeter of the rst is three times that of the second and the area of the second is three times that of the rst. Mathematically, we are asked to nd integers a; ; b; c; and d for which a + b = 3cd c + d = 3ab
Example. Find a triangle having rational sides with area 5. Alternatively, nd a right triangle with rational sides such that the sum of its area and perimeter is a given value. Problems of these types can be prodigiously challenging to solve, even with modern symbolism. Moreover, the use of a purely rhetorical system can only make them more dicult. A good number of mathematicians, high on our lists of the truly great, are remembered partly if not exclusively due to their genius at solving indeterminate problems and proving theorems about them. Symbolism of Diophantus
3.1
? The beginning of symbolism: The unknown (x { to us) x=
0 0 S x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x
x
invarious editions := := := := := := := K K K K 1=x 1=x2
There is no symbol for +. Essentially, the plus operation was the default. No symbol between variables implies the plus operation. We also have := minus j M := units
Diophantus An example: K i " M = x3 + 13x3 + 5x + 2 More examples: K " M =x3 5x2 + 8x 1 j

Note that in the rst example above Diophantus collects the negative terms so that what was written corresponds literally to x3 + 8x (5x2 + 1). Diophantus introduced sucient symbolism to become well aware of the laws of exponents, which is relatively simple to perceive from modern notation.
i" M = 15x2 39 j
3.2
The methods and ground rules of Diophantus
The types of solutions. No solutions are accepted other than positive rational numbers. Excluded are negative numbers and surds3 , and imaginary numbers. For examples, Diophantus would describe 4 = 4x + 20 as absurd because the solution x = 4. Neither would the solution of x2 + 1 = 0 be permitted, as the roots are imaginary.
The types of equations: (A) Determinate equations { single variable. (B) Indeterminate equations { two or more unknowns. Here there is a weakness in notation.
3 A number that is can be obtained from rational numbers by a finite number of additions, multiplications, p divisions, and root extractions is called a surd. An irrational number of the form ! a in which a is rational is called a pure surd of index n. For n = 2 the surd is quadratic. Surds that are not pure are called mixed. Geometrically, surds are all constructable numbers on the basis of a compass and straight edge.
Diophantus 3.3 Some examples
General form for intermediate equations of the second degree: Ax2 + Bx + C = y 2 x+y =m x2 + y 2 = n { single equation { two variables
(1) The single equation:
Ax2 + Bx + C = y 2
Case (i)
A=C =0 A=0
Bx = y 2 Bx + C = y 2 Ax2 + Bx = y 2
Soln. Take y 2 = m2 and solve Soln. Take y = mx n
Case (ii) C = 0
Case (iii) B = 0 () () A = a2 : C = c2 :
Ax2 + C = y 2
2
a2 x2 + c = (ax m)2 ! x = Cm 2ma 2mc Ax + c2 = (mx c)2 ! x = Am2
Case (iv) Ax2 + Bx + C = y 2 (2) Double equations: mx2 + x + a = u2 nx2 + x + b = w2 Simplest case: x + a = u2 x + b = w 2 To add the same number to two given numbers so as to make each a square. Diophantus gives two complex solutions, the second assuming a = b = n2 .
Diophantus ? Other examples from Book II: x2 + y = u2 ; y2 + x = v2
(Assume y = 2mx + m2 , and one equation is satised.) x2 y = u2 ; y 2 x = v 2 x2 + (x + y) = u2 ; y 2 + (x + y) = v2 (x + y)2 + x = u2 ; (x + y)2 + y = v2 y 2 z = u2 ; z 2 x = v 2 ; x2 y = w2 Solve. x + a = u2 x + b = v2 Solution. Select a b = u2 v 2 = (u v)(u + v) uv =ab u + v = 1: Solve for u; v. Hope x comes out to be plus. Else factor dierently. Example. Solve x + 3 = u2 x + 2 = v2 1 = u2 v 2 = (u v)(u + v) = Take u v = 1=4 u+v =4 2u = 17=4 ! u = 17=8 2v = 15=4 ! v = 15=8 ! x = 97=64:
1 4
4:
Diophantus Note: The factorization

1 2
2 above yields a negative x.
? From Book III come the quadratic systems. (x + y + z)2 x2 = u2 ; (x + y + z)2 y 2 = v2 ; (x + y + z)2 z 2 = w2 and x + y + z = t2 ; y + z x = u2 ; z + x y = v2; x + y z = w2 and yz + x2 = u2 ; zx + y 2 = v 2 ; xy + z 2 = w2
? From Book IV come the examples. x2 + y 2 + z 2 = (x2 y 2 ) + (y 2 z 2 ) + (x2 z 2 ) x2 + y 2 + z 2 + w2 (x + y + z + w) = a and the quadratic type system x2 + y = u2 x + y = u x2 + y = u x + y = u2 ? From Book IV we also have the cubic type systems
x2 y = u; and
xy = u3
x3 + y 2 = u3 ; z 2 + y 2 = v 2 x3 + y 3 = x + y
Example. Solve x3 + y = (x + y)3 .
Diophantus Solution. (Method of False Position.) Assume x = 2y. Thus 8y 3 + y = (3y)3 = 27y 3 y = 19y 3 19y 2 = 1
But 19 is not a square!! Retracing steps, note that 19 = 33 23 , and 3 comes from the assumption x = 2y. Hence, we need to nd two consecutive numbers such that the dierence of their cubes is a square. That is, we will take x = zy, where z is chosen so that (z + 1)3 z 3 is a perfect square. Thus, (z + 1)3 z 3 = 3z 2 + 3z + 1 Or z 2 7z = 0 z(z 7) = 0: So z = 7: Take x = 7y. It follows that 343y 3 + y = (8y)3 , or 169y 2 = 1. Hence y = 1=13 and x = 7=13. (1 2z)2 1 + 4z 2 4z
3.4
Other Problems
The Method of Limits It is desired to nd a power xn between two given numbers a and b. To solve this problem Diophantus multiplies a and b by powers 2n ; 3n ; : : : until some nth power, cn lies between apn and bpn . Then he sets x = c=p as it is easily seen that xn = cn =pn lies between a and b. More Method of Limits. Divide a number into a sum of squares each one of which satises some property. Example 1. Divide 13 into the sum of two squares, each of which is greater than 6.
Diophantus
10
Example 2. Divide 10 into the sum of three squares, each of which is greater than 3. The work of Diophantus has attracted mathematicians for the last two millenia. No diminution of eort has occurred. Indeed, solving polynomial equations for integer solutions is now a major area of mathematics usually included within analytic number theory, with countless applications. It includes some of the deepest and most dicult mathematics being done today. For example, the so-called \Fermat's last theorem" is among the many Diophantine equations whose solutions were extraordinarily dicult to decide. 4 Modern Diophantine Equations.
Definitions. A polynomial Diophantine equation is an equation of the form (1) P (x1 ; x2 ; : : : ; xm ) = 0 where m 2 Z + and P 2 Z[x1 ; x2 ; : : : ; xm ], i.e. P is a polynomial with integer coecients. The xi , i = 1; : : : ; m are assumed to be integers. If P (a1 ; a2 ; : : : ; am ) = 0 for ai 2 Z, i = 1; : : : ; m, we say that (a1 : : : am ) is a solution of (1). Examples. y 3 = x2 + 999 x2 1 + x2 2 + x2 3 =7 Solution: (1,10) no solutions
There are two types of questions normally asked: descriptive and quantitative. Consider the Diophantine equation x2 + x2 + x2 + x2 = n 1 2 3 4 The descriptive question asks for a solution in integers for a given and xed n. The quantitative question asks for the number of solutions. Here's a typical theorem in the theory of Diophantine Equations.
Diophantus
11
Theorem. If a; b; c; d and e are not zero and not all of the same sign, there exist integral solutions, not all zero, of ax2 + by 2 + cz 2 + du2 + ev2 = 0:
However, the same theorem for ax2 + by 2 + cz 2 + du2 = 0 must have additional conditions. ( Namely, two of a; b; c; d must not be even and 1 abcd = 5(mod 8) 4 . Theorem. If k is any integer, then k 2 = 0 or 1(mod4):
Corollary. For any two integers u and v, u2 + v2 = 0; 1; or 2(mod4): Therefore, no integer congruent to 3(mod 4) can be written as the sum of two squares. Theorem. (Lagrange) Every positive integer can be written as the sum of four squares. (Zero is admissible as one of the squares.) Theorem. If a; b; c have no common factor > 1, all integral solutions of ax + by + cz = 0 are given by x = bk cn y = cs ak z = an bs;
where s; n, and k are integers. A famous example. Consider the polynomial P (x; y; z) = xn + y n z n :
Diophantus
12
If n = 2, solutions of P (x; y; z) = 0 are Pythagorean triples for which it can be shown that, if primitive, it must have the form x = m2 n2 y = 2mn; z = m2 + n 2 :
If n 3 Fermat conjectured and in 1995 Andrew Wiles proved that there can be no integer solutions. Recall the polynomial: P (x1 ; x2 ; : : : ; xn ) = 0: A. Hilbert (10th problem). \Is there an algorithm for determining whether or not a given Diophantine equation (polynomial) has a solution?" (1902) Answer. No. J. Robinson (1952) Mitijasevi (1970). c B. If we know there is a solution, then we can nd it by applying all m-tuples and testing them. C. To nd algorithms for restricted classes of Diophantine equations yes, n = 1 Greeks n = 3 A. Baker for n = 2 Gauss D. Is there an upper bound on the number of solutions? Or are there an innite number? Compare: x2 + y 2 = z 2 and x3 + y 3 = z 3 Note. The value of finding only some solutions of a fixed Diophantine equation is usually rather small. Diophantine approximation The approximation of irrationals by rationals is one problems characteristic to the eld of Diophantine approximation. For example, as is well known any irrational is approximable by innitely many rationals h . Thus k h j j < k
Diophantus
13
has innitely many solutions for every . But how small can this be in terms of the rational approximants? Can we have h 1 j j < k k which means that jk hj < . Can we have h 1 j j < 2 k k
1 which means that jk hj < k . The answer is contained in the following theorem.
Theorem. For any irrational there exist innitely many rationals h such that k h 1 j j < p : k 5k p p No number greater than 5 can replace the 5 above. For algebraic numbers, there are more general versions of this theorem pertaining to the zeros of polynomial with integer coecients. Another type of result is this: Theorem. For any irrational the numbers ; 2; 3; : : : are uniformly distributed modulo 1. Recall that a sequence 1 ; 2 ; 3 ; : : : is uniformly distributed over an interval I if for every subinterval J, the number of elements of the sequence 1 ; 2 ; : : : ; n that are in J, denoted by n(J), satises
n!1
lim
n(J) jJj = n jIj
where jJj is the length of J.
August 27, 2000
Pappus of Alexandria, (fl. c. 300-c. 350)!

1 Introduction
Very little is known of Pappus' life. Moreover, very little is known of what his actual contributions were or even exactly when he lived. We do know that he recorded in one of his commentaries on the Almagest2 that he observed a solar eclipse on October 18, 320. He is regarded, though, as the last great mathematician of the Helenistic Age. At this time higher geometry was in complete abeyance until Pappus. From his descriptions, we may surmise that either the classical works were lost or forgotten. His self-described task is to `restore' geometry to a place of signicance. 2 Pappus Work
Toward this end wrote The Collection or The Synagogue, an extant treatise on geometry which we discuss here and several commentaries, now all lost except for some fragments in Greek or Arabic. One of the commentaries, we note from Proclus, was on The Elements. Basically, The Collection is a treatise on Geometry, which included everything of interest to him. Whatever explanations or supplements to the works of the great geometers seemed to him necessary, he formulated them as lemmas. The rst published translation into Latin was made by Commandinus in 1589. Others including Eisenmann, John Wallis added to the translations. Friedrich Hultsch gave the denitive Greek text with Latin translation in 1876-8. Features: It is very broad, designed to revive classical geometry.
G. Donald Allen Ptolemy(100-178 AD) wrote the Mathematical Collection, later called The Almagest, from the Arabic al-magisti meaning the greatest.
2 Claudius
1 2000, c
Pappus
It is a guide or handbook to be read with the Elements and other original works. Alternative methods of proof are often given. The work shows a thorough grasp of all the subjects treated, independence of judgment, mastery of technique; the style is terse but clear. Pappus is an accomplished and versatile mathematician. The range of names of predecessors is immense. In some cases, our only knowledge of some mathematicians is due to his citation. Among many others he mentions Aristaeus the elder, Carpus of Antioch, Conon of Samos, Demetrius of Alexandria, Geminus, Menelaus, and of course the masters. Summary of Contents: Book I and rst 13 (of 26) propositions of Book II. Book II was concerned with very large numbers { powers of myriads (i.e. 10,000). Book III begins with a summary of nding two mean proportionals (a : x = x : y = a : y) between two straight lines. In so doing, he gives the solutions of Eratosthenes, Nicomedes, and Heron. He adds solutions of his own that resembles closely that of Eutocius of Sporus. He also denes plane problems, solid problems, and linear problems, of which the two mean proportionals problem is of the latter type. Pappus { Distinguishes (1) plane problems, solvable with straight edge and compass { Distinguishes (2) solid problems, requiring the conics for solution, e.g. solving certain cubics. { Distinguishes (3) linear problems, problems invoking spirals, quadratrices, and other higher curves { Gives a constructive theory of means. That is, given any two of the numbers a; b; c and the type of mean (arithmetic, geometric, or harmonic), he constructs the third.
Pappus
{ Describes the solution of the three famous problems of antiquity, asserts these are not plane problems 19th century. { Treats the trisection problem, giving another solution involving a hyperbola and a circle. { Inscribes the ve regular solids in the sphere. In this book Pappus goes to some length to distinguish theorems from problems. Citing the apparent fact that his predecessors combined them as one, he separates those statements calling for a construction as problems, and statements that call upon hypotheses to draw implications as theorems. It is not incumbent on the problem originator to know whether or not the construction can be made. It is the solver's task to determine appropriate conditions for solution. Pappus goes to some length in his study of the three claasic means of anticuity, the arithmetic, the geometric, and the harmonic. Recall the chapter on Pythagoras a:c= ab:bc a:a=ab:bc a: bab: bc Harmonic Arithmetic Geometric
where b is the designated mean of a and c. He oers geometric solutions of each. Precisely, for any two of the quantities he constructs the third. Book IV covers a variety of geometrical propositions. Foremost it contains an extention of theorem of Pythagorus for parallelograms constructed on the legs of any triangle. This result has itself a variety of generalization, and seems to reveal the essence of the Pythagorean theorem itself.
Pappus
Generalization of Pythagoreans Theorem If ABC is a triangle and on AB; AC any parallelograms are drawn as ABDE and ACF G, and if DE and F G are extended to H and HA be joined to K. Then BCNL is a parallelogram and area ABDE + area ACF G = area BCNL .
H E A G
L D B
N F
Proof. The proof is similar to the original proof of the Pythagorean theorem as found in The Elements. First, BL and NC are dened to be parallel to HK. BLHA is a parallelogram and CAHM is a parallelogram. Hence BCN L is a parallelogram. By \sliding" DE to HL, it is easy to see that area BDEA = area BLHA; and by sliding HA to M K it follows that area BKM L = area BLHA: Thus area BDEA = area BKM L: Similarly, area ACF G = area KCNM: Putting these conclusions together gives the theorem area ABDE + area ACF G = area BCN L:
Pappus
Note. Both parallelograms need not be drawn outside ABC. Also in Book IV we nd material about the Archimedian spiral, including methods of nding area of one turn | diers from Archimedes. He also constructs the conchoid of Nicomedes. In addition, he constructs the quadratix in two dierent ways, (1) using a cylindrical helix, and (2) using a right cylinder, the base of which is an Archimedian spiral. He considers the three problems of antiquity, alluding to them as \solid" problems.3 He oers two solutions of the trisection problem, both involving the use of hyperbolas. Book V Here we see in the introduction his comments on the sagacity of bees. This statement on the bees celebrates the hexagonal shape of their honeycombs. [The bees], believing themselves, no doubt, to be entrusted with the task of bringing from the gods to the more cultured part of mankind a share of ambrosia in this form,: : : do not think it proper to pour it carelessly into earth or wood or any other unseemly and irregular material, but, collecting the fairest parts of the sweetest flowers growing on the earth, from them they prepare for the reception of the honey the vessels called honeycombs, [with cells] all equal, similar and adjacent, and hexagonal in form. That they have contrived this in accordance with a certain geometrical forethought we may thus infer. They would necessarily think that the figures must all be adjacent one to another and have their sides common, in order that nothing else might fall into the interstices and so defile their work. Now there are only three rectilineal figures which would satisfy the condition, I mean regular figures which are equilateral and equiangular, inasmuch as irregular figures would be displeasing to the bees: : : . [These being] the triangle, the square and the hexagon,
3 An obvious conclusion here is that by this time the ancients generally believed that no classical compass and straight edge constructive solution of these problems was possible.
Pappus the bees in their wisdom chose for their work that which has the most angles, perceiving that it would hold more honey than either of the two others. Bees, then, know just this fact which is useful to them, that the hexagon is greater than the square and the triangle and will hold more honey for the same expenditure of material in constructing each.
In his recounting of various propositions of Archimedes On the Sphere and Cylinder he gives geometric proofs of the two familiar trigonometric relations of which the most familiar is sin(x + y) + sin(x y) = 2 sin x cos y He also reproduces the work of Zeodorus on isoperimetric gures. He includes the following result. Proposition. Of all circular segments having the same circumference the semicircle is the greatest. On solids we nd the thirteen semi-regular solids discoved by Archimedes. We also see a number of isoperimetric results such as Proposition. The sphere is greater than any of the regular solids which has its surface equal to that of the sphere.The proof is similar to that of Zenodorus. He also shows Proposition. Of regular solids4 with surfaces equal, that is greater which has more faces. Book VI determines the center of an ellipse as a perspective of a circle. It is also astronomical in nature. It has been called the \Little Astronomy". It covers optics { reection and refraction. Book VII, the `Treasury of Analysis' is very important because it surveys a great number of works on geometric analysis of loci, nearly all of which are lost. Features: { The Book begins with a denition of analysis and synthesis.
the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and the icosahedron are the five regular solids. And there are no more, as established during the time of Plato by Theaetetus
4 Recall,
Pappus
Analysis, then takes that which is sought as if it were admitted and passes from it through its successive consequences to something which is admitted as the result of systhesis. Unconditional controvertability required. In Synthesis, reversing the process, we take as already done that which was last arrived at in the analysis and, by arranging in their natural order as consequences what before were antecedents, and successively connecting them one with the other, we arrive nally at the construction of what was sought. { A list of the books forming the `treasury' is included, together with a short description of their contents. { As an independent contribution Pappus formulated the volume of a solid of revolution, the result we now call the The Pappus { Guldin Theorem. P. Guldin (1577-1643) { Most of the remaining of the treatise is collections of lemmas that will assist the reader's understanding of the original works. Pappus also discusses the three and four lines theorem of Apollonius. Succinctly, given three lines: Find the locus of points for which the product of the distances from two lines is the square of the distance of the third. (The solution is an ellipse.) Given four lines: Find the locus of points for which the product of the distances from two lines is the product of the distance of the other two.
Pappus Pappus Theorem. Volume of revolution = (area bounded by the curve) (distance traveled by the center of gravity)
Center of Gravity
y a b
Volume of revolution V =
Area bounded by the curve:
Rb
a
f 2 (x)dx
Z b
a
A= The y center of gravity: y= Pappus:
f (x)dx
1 Rb yf (x)dx 2 a Rb a f(x)dx
Rb 2 a f (x)dx Rb
a
f (x)dx
V = 2A y Pappus, on the Pappus-Guldin Theorem Figures generated by a complete revolution of a plane figure about an axis are in a ratio compounded (1) of the ratio of the areas of the figures, and (2) of the ratio of the straight lines similarly drawn to (i.e. drawn to meet at the same angles) the axes of rotation from the respective centres of gravity. Figures generated by incomplete revolutions are in the ratio compounded (1) of the ratio of the areas of the figures and (2) of the ratio of the arcs described by the centres of gravity
Pappus
of the respective figures, the latter ratio being itself compounded (a) of the ratio of the straight lines similarly drawn (from the respective centres of gravity to the axes of rotation) and (b) of the ratio of the angles contained (i.e. described) about the axes of revolution by the extremities of the said straight lines (i.e. the centres of gravity). Pappus theorem surface area.
Pappus 3 End Game | The End of the Greek School
10
Following Pappus was no mathematician with abilities of the great masters. The school at Alexandria was diminished with only an occasional bright star yet to shine. The world was turning to Christianity, which at that time in no way resembled what it would become centuries later. To the Christians, the ancient schools were pagan, and paganism must be destroyed. 3.1 Theon of Alexandria
Theon of Alexandria (c. 390) lived toward the end of the period when Alexandria was a center of mathematics. His most valuable contributions are his commentaries on various of the masterpieces, now growing old in libraries. One commentary was on Prolemy's Syntaxis in eleven books. In it we learn of the Greek use of sexagesimal fractions, arithmetic, and root extraction. Theon also wrote commentaries on Euclid's Optics. More signicantly, Theon wrote commentaries on Euclids's Elements. It appears that his eort was not directed toward the production of an authoritative and accurate addition. (Remember, 700 years have past since it was written.) Rather, Theon seems to have been intent on making what he regarded as improvements. According to Heath5 , he made alterations where he thought mistakes appeared, he altered some passages too hastily, he made emendations to improve the linguistic form of Euclid, he added explanations to the original, by adding or altering propositions as needed, and he added intermediate steps to Euclid's proofs to assist student understanding. In summary, his intent was to make the monumental work more accessible. We know all of this only because of the discovery of the earlier non-Theonine edition in the Vatican.
5 Thomas Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics, II, Dover, New York, 1921 page 527. This is a reprinting of the original published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford in 1920.
Pappus 3.2 Hypatia
11
(c. 370-418) By 397 Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire and paganism \pagamni" was banned. The Alexandrian school was considered a center of pagan learning and became at risk. Hypatia, daughter of Theon of Alexandria, became a leader of the neoplatonic school6 and was so eloquent and persuasive in her beliefs that she was feared a threat to Christianity. In consequence, she was slain in 418 by a fanatical mob led by the Nitrian monks when she refused to repudiate her beliefs. Some accounts argue that this may have resulted because of a dispute between the Roman prefect Orestus and the patriarch bishop Cyrillus (later St. Cyril. Regardless of the cause of her death, the surrounding events and political hostility resulted in the departure of many scholars from Alexandria. Her mathematical contributions are not well known and indeed are all lost. It has been surmised by statement of Suidas that she wrote commentaries on Diophantus' Arithmetica, Apollonius' On Conics, and possibly on Ptolemy astronomical works. After Hypatia, Alexandrian mathematics came to an end, though there is evidence that little remained at this late date. For further resources on Hypatia, see http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/ history/Mathematicians/Hypatia.html. 3.3 Eutocius of Ascalon
Eutocius (c. 480 - c. 540), likely a pupil of Ammonius in Alexandria7 , probably became head of the Alexandrian school after Ammonius. There is no record of any original work by Eutocius. However, his
6 One unfortunate tenet of neoplatonism, the last school of Greek philosophy, was its declaration of ideological war against the Christians. Created by the great philosopher Plotinus, and carefully edited and promoted by Porphyry (c. 234 - c. 305), neoplatonism featured an extreme spiritualism and a greater sympathy with the less sharply defined hierarchies of the Platonists. Porphyry, who incorporated Aristotles logic into neoplatonism, also attacked Christian doctrines on both a philosophical and exegetical basis. Antagonism developed. Interestingly, Porphyry, Iamblichus (c. 250 - c. 330) , and much later Proclus (410 485) were all prominant neoplatonists and more importantly (for us) were capable mathematicians. Porphyry wrote a commentary on on the Elements Iamblichus wrote a commentary on Nicomachus Introductio aritmetica, and Proclus we will study in the next section. Interestingly, until modern times, mathematicians were often also philosophers or clerics. One of the deepest philosopher-mathematicians was Ren du Perron Descartes (1596 - 1650). 7 who inturn was a student of Proclus
Pappus
12
commentaries contain much historical information which might otherwise have been completely lost. In particular, he wrote commentaries of Archimedes' On the sphere and cylinder that inspired some brief interest in his great mathematical works resulting in translations into a more familiar dialect and more suitable for students. A similar result held for his commentaries of Apollonius' On Conics. 3.4 Athens
Ironically, the center of Greek mathematics returned to Greece for the rst time in nearly 1000 years. The Academia of Plato, which had access to it own ample nancial means, maintained itself for a longer time. Proclus Diadochus (411 - 485), though he studied for a brief time in Alexandria, later moved to Athens where he wrote a most important work, namely his commentaries on Elements, Book I. Because of the wealth of information he included, it is now one of our main sources of information on the history of geometry. Evidently, Proclus had access to a library of considerable resources including the History of Geometry by Eudemus (. 335) and other great works. Proclus, a neoplatonist, was venerated even in his own time as being a man of great learning. After came Isidore of Alexandria and Damascius of Damascus. They were heads of the school. There was also Simplicius, who wrote commentaries on Aristotle. But in 529, on the order of the Emperor Justinian, the school of Athens, the last rampart of the pagan world, was closed. The last center of Greek culture was Constantinople. Here lived Isidore of Milete and Anthemius of Tralles, both architects and mathematicians. It was probably Isidore who added the so-called 15th Book of the Elements, which contains propositions on regular polyhedra. At least, the propositions were probably his. After these last utterings, the history of Greek mathematics died.
Pappus 4 The Decline of Greek Mathematics
13
Why did mathematics decline so dramatically from the Golden Age? No doubt an entire chapter could be devoted to this topic, even books with carefully crafted answers could be oered up. However, among the main points that could be argued are these: There were always only a few that could aord to spend their lives pursuing mathematics. Mathematics, in particular geometry, was clearly now at a level that demanded professional practitioners. It would have to spring in new directions to gather around it a loyal cadre of dedicated amateurs that could sustain the few professionals and feed their numbers. The teaching tradition diminished partly due to the political strife around the eastern Mediterranean. Roman inuence (never inclined to mathematics) was important. Arab hegemony { destruction of the library of Alexandria { and of the seat of learning. Christian intolerance and the unfortunate classication of mathematics as a \pagan art".

Allen, Donald - The Origin of Greek Mathematics

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Allen, Donald - The Origin of Greek Mathematics

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

The Origins of Greek Mathematics1

Origins of Greek Mathematics

The Sources of Greek Mathematics

Origins of Greek Mathematics

The Major Schools of Greek Mathematics

Origins of Greek Mathematics

The Pythagorean School

The Eleatic School

Origins of Greek Mathematics

Origins of Greek Mathematics

The Sophist School

Origins of Greek Mathematics

city in the Peloponnesus

Origins of Greek Mathematics

Bar Rotating Arm

The Platonic School

Origins of Greek Mathematics

Origins of Greek Mathematics method of analysis14 and the reductio ad absurdum.15

The School of Eudoxus

Origins of Greek Mathematics 2.7 The School of Aristotle

Origins of Greek Mathematics

Origins of Greek Mathematics

Aristotles influence has been immeasurably vast.

Thales 2 Thales Mathematics

Shore observation points

Thales Proposition. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.

+ = 180 2 + = 180 D 2 + = 180 2( + ) + + = 360 + = 90

Proposition. An angle in a semicircle is a right angle.

After Thales, the torch of mathematical investication was passed to Pythagoras.

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans1

Donald Allen, 1999

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 1 Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 3 Pythagorean Mathematics

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

modern terms have

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

2n = 2p 1 + (2p 1)(2p1 1) = (2p 1)2p1

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

p = rs, then 2p 1 = 2rs 1 = (2r )s 1 = (2r 1)((2r )s1 + (2r )s2 + 1)

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Then the triangle are reassembled into the first figure.

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

This stamp was issued by Greece. It depicts the Pythagorean theorem.

The Golden Section

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Verification: 5 |AE|2 = |AD|2 + |DE|2 = a2 + (a/2)2 = a2 . 4 Thus, 5 1 51 |DH| = ( )a = a. 2 2 2

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

Discoverer ancient ancient ancient ancient ancient Euler, 1732

Lenstra, et.al., 1990 Brent and Morain, 1988

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans 6.4 More Pythagorean Geometry

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans