Mathematician
Born: c. 330 b. c.e.; probably Greece Died: c. 270 b. c.e.; Alexandria, Egypt Also known as: Euclid of Alexandria Category: Mathematics
Life Euclid taught at the museum in Alexandria. He compiled results from earlier geometry textbooks and the works of contemporary Greek mathematicians into thirteen books of Stoicheia (compiled c. 300 b. c.e.; Elements, 1570). Elements covered plane geometry, the theory of proportion, solid geometry, and number theory. The text culminated with con-
Euclid.
(Library of Congress)
Structions of the five Platonic solids. It immediately superseded all previous geometry manuals. The most notable feature of Elements was the special attention Euclid paid to the deductive structure of the work. In general, he accepted no facts about geometrical concepts without proof. The proof of each theorem or problem depended on earlier propositions and on the few axioms and postulates Euclid claimed to be self-evident.
Euclid wrote several other works that survived in fragments, if at all. In addition to the philosophy of how to solve mathematical problems, Euclid was interested in astronomy, optics, music, and conic sections.
Influence No book besides the Bible has appeared in as many translations, editions, and commentaries as Elements. Since antiquity, mathematicians, students, and historians have equated Euclid’s name with the rational order and deductive structure associated with Greek mathematics. Euclidean geometry was believed to be the only possible geometry until the nineteenth century.
Further Reading
Artmann, Benno. Euclid: The Creation of Mathematics. New York: Springer Verlag, 1999.
Heilbron, John L. Geometry Civilized: History, Culture, and Technique.
Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1998.
Knorr, Wilbur. The Evolution of the Euclidean Elements. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1975.
Mlodinow, Leonard. Euclid’s Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace. New York: Free Press, 2001.
Amy Ackerberg-Hastings
See also: Literature; Science.
World History
