Euclid, Archimedes, Nicomachus

by Euclid, Archimedes, Nicomachus

Euclid (FL. C. 300 BC)
The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements

Archimedes (C. 287-212 BC)
On the Sphere and Cylinder
Measurement of a Circle
On Conoids and Spheroids
On Spirals
On the Equilibrium of Planes
The Sand-Reckoner
Quadrature of the Parabola
On Floating Bodies
Book of Lemmas
The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems

Nicomachus
The Introduction to Arithmetic of Nicomachus

636 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Euclid (Ancient Greek: Εὐκλείδης Eukleidēs -- "Good Glory", ca. 365-275 BC) also known as Euclid of Alexandria, was a Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323–283 BC). His Stoicheia (Elements) is a 13-volume exploration all corners of mathematics, based on the works of, inter alia, Aristotle, Eudoxus of Cnidus, Plato, Pythagoras. It is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, presenting the mathematical theorems and problems with great clarity, and showing their solutions concisely and logically. Thus, it came to serve as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the Elements, Euclid deduced the principles of what is now called Euclidean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory and rigor. He is sometimes credited with one original theory, a method of exhaustion through which the area of a circle and volume of a sphere can be calculated, but he left a much greater mark as a teacher.

Reviews

[Darwin Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not invest the time to study all the math problems and proofs: first, because math is my greatest weakness and second, because the time that it would have taken me would have prevented my goal of reading the entire Great Books set. So, I mindlessly just read all the pages, to get through the volume.

This was not a total waste, though. I have come away tremendously amazed that these people could have come up with their mathematical ideas up to three thousand years ago, just by sitting around thinking about them and discussing them. Modern man is not so advanced and ancient man is not so irrelevant as we have supposed.

The more I progress through the Great Books, the more I am converted to the importance of studying the Classics. It is too bad that we largely ignore them.