Euclid: The Great Geometer

by Chris Hayhurst

Euclid is known as the father of modern geometry. Thriving during his time, Euclid came up with some of the most basic but groundbreaking developments in geometry, which are still used today. This book takes readers into Euclid’s life, and to the ancient Greece in which he was raised, with full-color and black-and-white images, many of which are primary sources.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

112 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Vee · Rating 2 out of 5]

About this book: This is not a review, because there's really not much information about Euclid the man. Apparently Euclid of Alexandria (in the northern African city), not to be confused with Euclid of Megara (the Grecian city), did have a sense of humor that many math and science teachers would probably appreciate.

Obversation: I don't know but some times when mathematicians or historians discuss the mathematics or science in history they tend to downplay or ignore contributions outside of Greece.

Example: He was known for his inventions, including levers and pulleys that relied on the laws of physics to allow a single person to move exceedingly heavy objects. p.66

That passage is about Euclid's most famous student Archimedes who was born around 287 B.C. So if Archimedes invented levers and pulleys, one has to wonder how did the Ancient Egyptians construct monumental geometric structures before Archimedes was born? Who constructed the grand geometric structures in México? Did they use pulleys or levers?

I understand the significance and importance of Euclid's Elements. The fact that it is now easily available in PDF form is phenomenal. I plan to read Elements later this year. I just think the study of mathematics, recreational mathematics would be incredibly enriched if the contributions outside of Greece were equally recognized, explored, and discussed like those from Sumeria, China, India, Babylon and Africa.

[Shelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

The chapters in this book that were about Euclid were informative. However, I skipped over several chapters that were not about the Father of Geometry since the entire point of reading this was to get information about him. Granted there is not much known about Euclid, so write a smaller more concise read with better examples of his accomplishments. All the author did was waste paper and annoy readers.

[James Piper]

Saying Athens was the size of Toledo, Ohio is the same as saying Toledo, Ohio is the size of ancient Athens. It doesn't help.
From pp. 19-20
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