61. The Hellenic Cultural Society Of San Diego, California The Hellenic Cultural Society is a notfor-profit corporation dedicated to researching, preserving and promoting the great work of the philosophers, historians, mathematicians, scientists, writers, artists and other minds of greek origin. http://www.hellenic-culture.org/

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62. Thabit Gives information on background and contributions to noneuclidean geometry, spherical trigonometry, number theory and the field of statics. Was an important translator of greek materials, including Euclid's Elements, during the Middle Ages. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Thabit.html

Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani Born: 836 in Harran, Mesopotamia (now Turkey) Died: 18 Feb 901 in Baghdad, (now in Iraq) Click the picture above to see a larger version Previous (Chronologically) Next Biographies Index Previous (Alphabetically) Next Main index Version for printing Thabit ibn Qurra was a native of Harran and a member of the Sabian sect. The Sabian religious sect were star worshippers from Harran often confused with the Mandaeans (as they are in [1]). Of course being worshipers of the stars meant that there was strong motivation for the study of astronomy and the sect produced many quality astronomers and mathematicians. The sect, with strong Greek connections, had in earlier times adopted Greek culture, and it was common for members to speak Greek although after the conquest of the Sabians by Islam, they became Arabic speakers. There was another language spoken in southeastern Turkey, namely Syriac, which was based on the East Aramaic dialect of Edessa. This language was Thabit ibn Qurra's native language, but he was fluent in both Greek and Arabic. Some accounts say that Thabit was a money changer as a young man. This is quite possible but some historians do not agree. Certainly he inherited a large family fortune and must have come from a family of high standing in the community.

63. Hero, Greek Mathematician Hero, greek mathematician see Heron of Alexandria. Hero, greek mathematician.Scientific Measurements Major mathematicians (The New York Public http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0914317.html

in All Infoplease Almanacs Biographies Dictionary Encyclopedia Daily Almanac for Sep 17, 2005 Skip Navigation Home Almanacs ... Word of the Day Editor's Favorites Hispanic Heritage Month Hurricane Katrina Daylight Saving Time Ramadan ... Mississippi Infoplease Tools Periodic Table Conversion Tool Perpetual Calendar Year by Year ... Site Map College Center Scholarship Search College Resources Career Center Job Search Post Your Resume Continuing Ed. more . . . Search: Infoplease Info search tips Search: Biographies Bio search tips google_ad_client = 'pub-1894504138907931'; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 240; google_ad_format = '120x240_as'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_ad_channel =''; google_color_border = ['336699','B4D0DC','DFF2FD','B0E0E6']; google_color_bg = ['FFFFFF','ECF8FF','DFF2FD','FFFFFF']; google_color_link = ['0000FF','0000CC','0000CC','000000']; google_color_url = ['008000','008000','008000','336699']; google_color_text = ['000000','6F6F6F','000000','333333']; Encyclopedia Hero Hero, Greek mathematician: see Heron of Alexandria The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Page Tools: Cite Print Email See more Encyclopedia articles on: Mathematics: Biographies Premium Partner Content Related content from HighBeam Research on: Hero, Greek mathematician

64. A Short History Of Greek Mathematics mathematicians will find accounts here of every extant greek greek MathematicalThought and the Origin of Algebra greek Mathematical Thought and the http://store.doverpublications.com/0486495892.html

American History, American...... American Indians Anthropology, Folklore, My...... Antiques Architecture Art Bridge and Other Card Game...... Business and Economics Chess Children Clip Art and Design on CD-...... Coloring Books Cookbooks, Nutrition Crafts Detective, Ghost , Superna...... Dover Patriot Shop Ethnic Interest Features Gift Certificates Gift Ideas History, Political Science...... Holidays Humor Languages and Linguistics Literature Magic, Legerdemain Military History, Weapons ...... Music Nature Performing Arts, Drama, Fi...... Philosophy and Religion Photography Posters Psychology, Education Puzzles, Amusement, Recrea...... Science and Mathematics Shakespeare Shop Sociology, Anthropology, M...... Sports, Out-of-Door Activi...... Stationery, Gift Sets Stationery, Seasonal Books...... Summer Fun Shop Summer Reading Shop Teacher's Store Travel and Adventure Women's Studies Clearance Center By Subject Science and Mathematics Mathematics History of Mathematics A Short History of Greek Mathematics James Gow Our Price (Table of Contents) Availability: In Stock Format: Book ISBN: Page Count: Dimensions: 5 5/8 x 8 1/2 Authoritative and highly readable, this volume focuses on the contributions of major figures, and also explores fascinating aspects of works by lesser-known scholars. Mathematicians will find accounts here of every extant Greek mathematical book and many proofs translated directly from ancient texts. Greek scholars will encounter a full treatment of nomenclature and arithmetical symbols. Students of history can extract a chronicle of the development of mathematical science. Contents include discussions of the decimal scale; Egyptian and Greek arithmetic; the Greek theory of numbers and Greek geometry; prehistoric and Egyptian geometry; and the works of Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, and their successors. 1884 ed.

65. Mathematicians 287 BC212 BC) greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor, BC)greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and poet, who measured the circumference http://www.reference.com/Dir/Science/Math/Mathematicians/

Dictionary Thesaurus Encyclopedia Web Home Premium: Sign up Login YOUR AD HERE Dictionary ... Encyclopedia - Web Directory Web Directory Top Science Math / Mathematicians Borcherds - Richard E. Borcherds, Royal Society Research Professor Preprints and papers. Problem sheets for the Lie algebras course. Problem sheets for a modular forms course. Tables of positive definite lattices, dimension at most 25, det=1 or 2. Chaitin - G J Chaitin Home Page List of Publications of G J Chaitin Borwein - HOME PAGE FOR PETER BORWEIN Home Page for Peter Borwein : includes all recent publications Pasechnik - Dima Pasechnik Dmitrii V. Pasechnik, Combinatorics, Group Theory, Computational Algebra, Computational aspects of invariant theory of binary forms, Invariants of an algebraic torus. aaa - mathematics (History) Mathematics arose in response to the practical needs, the Greeks THALES, PYTHAGORAS, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, EUCLID, ARCHIMEDES, and Zeno of Elea profoundly changed the nature of mathematics, introducing abstract notions Woltman, George - GIMPS The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search

66. Famous Scientists And Mathematicians EUCLID Ancient greek Mathematician and Scientist 325B.C.265 BC PYTHAGORUS HOME PAGE greek Mathematician and Philospher 569 475 BC. PYTHAGORUS http://www.saintmarksschool.org/public/library/webliographies/scientists/

Famous Scientists and Mathematicians A B C D ... H I J K L M ... N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z THE NOBEL PRIZE ON-LINE SUBSCRIPTIONS ... AL-BIRUNI Muslim Cartographer, Astronomer, and Mathematician. 973 - 1048 Determined earth's circumference RETURN TO TOP ARISTOTOLE Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, and Scientist. 384B.C. - 322 B.C. Aristotle's Influence on Contemporary Biology RETURN TO TOP ARCHIMEDES 287B.C. - 212 B.C. Ancient Sicilian Mathematician. RETURN TO TOP NIELS HENRIK DAVID BOHR The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them" NIELS HENRIK DAVID BOHR NEILS BOHR RETURN TO TOP BOOLE, GEORGE Irish mathematician and logician. 1815 - 1864 The Boolean logic used in today's comuters is based on his work RETURN TO TOP TYCHO BRAHE Danish Mathematician 1546 - 1601 TYCHO BRAHE TYCHO BRAHE RETURN TO TOP EDUARD BUCHNER The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1907 "for his biochemical researches and his discovery of cell-free fermentation" RETURN TO TOP W RACHEL CARSON Time 100 persons of the 20th Century Author. Envionmentalist.

67. Greece - Greek Math Resources on ancient greek mathematics, calculations, geometry, List ofmathematicians, beginning with Ahmes in 1650 BC While there are dozens of http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greekmath/

zJs=10 zJs=11 zJs=12 zJs=13 zc(5,'jsc',zJs,9999999,'') About Homework Help Ancient / Classical History Ancient Greece ... Mathematics Greek Mathematics Homework Help Ancient History Essentials Ancient World Maps ... Help zau(256,140,140,'el','http://z.about.com/0/ip/417/C.htm','');w(xb+xb+' ');zau(256,140,140,'von','http://z.about.com/0/ip/496/7.htm','');w(xb+xb); FREE Newsletter Sign Up Now for the Ancient / Classical History newsletter! See Online Courses Search Ancient / Classical History Greece - Greek Math Resources on ancient Greek mathematics, calculations, geometry, and on Zeno, Archimedes, and Roman numerals. Alphabetical Recent Up a category Abacus - Base 10 and Greek Counting If the ancient Greeks used letters for their numbers, were they able to and did they use a counting system like an abacus that relies on a base like the decimal system? Euclid An Alexandrian mathematician and teacher, Euclid is most famous for his geometry with its logical deductions, axioms and postulates. Euclid An Alexandrian mathematician and teacher, Euclid is most famous for his geometry with its logical deductions, axioms and postulates. The Number 60 in Distance and Time Sixty may be an arbitrary number but it approximates the numbers of days in the year and is easier to work with because it has so many factors than a decimal system.

68. Index Of Ancient Greek Scientists http://www.ics.forth.gr/~vsiris/ancient_greeks/

69. Index Of Ancient Greek Philosophers-Scientists greek mathematician and engineer which is included among the top ranking greek mathematician and astrnomer. Headed the Alexandrian library after Euclid. http://www.ics.forth.gr/~vsiris/ancient_greeks/hellinistic_period.html

Hellinistic/Alexandrian period (4th century B.C. - 5th century A.D.) This period marking advances in astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Hellinistic refers to the Greeks and others who lived after Alexander the Great's conquests, during which there existed a mixture of civilizations. Important schools of this period include Epicurianism, Stoiciscm , and Skeptisicm Philosophers-Scientists Epicurus of Samos (341-270 B.C.). Founder of the philosophical school of Epicurianism which, similar to the Atomists, believed that atoms are fundamental parts of the real world. Believed that fate was governed by laws of nature and not some mysterious gods. Straton (Lambsacus, 340-290 B.C.). Greek physicist. Conducted experiments leading him to discover that bodies accelerate when they fall. However, erroneously, he also believes that heavier bodies fall faster. Also studied the lever, but does not find it's law. His work emphasizes the use of experimentation for scientific research. Lived in Alexandria, then moved to Athens to head the Aristitle's Lyceum after Theophrastos. Zenon of Citius (4th century B.C.).

70. History Of Mathematics: Greece greek Mathematical thought and the origin of algebra. Translated by Eva Brann.MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1968. Knorr, Wilbur Richard http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/mathhist/greece.html

Greece Cities Abdera: Democritus Alexandria : Apollonius, Aristarchus, Diophantus, Eratosthenes, Euclid , Hypatia, Hypsicles, Heron, Menelaus, Pappus, Ptolemy, Theon Amisus: Dionysodorus Antinopolis: Serenus Apameia: Posidonius Athens: Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Socrates, Theaetetus Byzantium (Constantinople): Philon, Proclus Chalcedon: Proclus, Xenocrates Chalcis: Iamblichus Chios: Hippocrates, Oenopides Clazomenae: Anaxagoras Cnidus: Eudoxus Croton: Philolaus, Pythagoras Cyrene: Eratosthenes, Nicoteles, Synesius, Theodorus Cyzicus: Callippus Elea: Parmenides, Zeno Elis: Hippias Gerasa: Nichmachus Larissa: Dominus Miletus: Anaximander, Anaximenes, Isidorus, Thales Nicaea: Hipparchus, Sporus, Theodosius Paros: Thymaridas Perga: Apollonius Pergamum: Apollonius Rhodes: Eudemus, Geminus, Posidonius Rome: Boethius Samos: Aristarchus, Conon, Pythagoras Smyrna: Theon Stagira: Aristotle Syene: Eratosthenes Syracuse: Archimedes Tarentum: Archytas, Pythagoras Thasos: Leodamas Tyre: Marinus, Porphyrius Mathematicians Thales of Miletus (c. 630-c 550)

71. Ancient Greek Mathematical Curves Ancient greek Mathematical Curves. The classic cube doubling, angle trisectionand squaring the circle problems. Trying to solve the classical problems of http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Curves.htm

Ancient Greek Mathematical Curves The classic cube doubling, angle trisection and squaring the circle problems. Trying to solve the classical problems of Antiquity, such as the trisection problem, Greeks discovered different mathematical curves. There was no systematic theory of higher-degree curves in Greek mathematics but Greeks studied many interesting special cases: The Cissoid of Diocles ( c. 100 BC ) Diocles showed that the Cissoid a cubic curve defined by y (1+x) = (1-x) could be used to duplicate the cube The Spiric Sections of Perseus ( c. 150 BC ) The Epicycles of Ptolemy ( c. 140 AD ) used to describe the retrograde motion of Planets in his Earth centric model. Ellipse, Parabola, Hyperbola (Conic Sections) discovered probably by Menaechmus and theory studied in details by Apollonius. Xah Lee has a very interesting Website that includes also information of Curves among which some have been discovered by ancient Greek mathematicians. I provide the links to the corresponding plane curves. Later I will provide additional information. Also other links are provided. CURVE LINKS Archimedean Spiral Archimedean Spiral Conchoid of Nicomedes Conchoid of Nicomedes Pappus on Nicomedes' cochloid (conchoid) Cissoid of Diocles Cissoid of Diocles Cissoid and burning mirrors Spiric of Perseus Spiric of Perseus General Conic Sections Conic Sections Ellipse Ellipse Hyperbola Hyperbola Parabola Parabola Quadratix of Hippias A Crowning Achievement: The Quadratrix of Hippias Quadratrix of Hippias Pappus on the Quadratrix Construction from a cylindrical spiral, as the intersection of a plektoid and a plane

72. Archimedes The greek mathematician Pappus of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth centuryAD, writes that Archimedes wrote a nowlost manuscript entitled On http://www.crystalinks.com/archimedes.html

Archimedes Archimedes was a famous mathematician whose theorems and philosophies became world known. He gained a reputation in his own time which few other mathematicians of this period achieved. He is considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He discovered pi. Most of the facts about his life come from a biography about the Roman soldier Marcellus written by the Roman biographer Plutarch. According to Plutarch, Archimedes had so low an opinion of the kind of practical invention at which he excelled and to which he owed his contemporary fame that he left no written work on such subjects. While it is true thatapart from a dubious reference to a treatise, On Sphere-Making - all of his known works were of a theoretical character, nevertheless his interest in mechanics deeply influenced his mathematical thinking. Not only did he write works on theoretical mechanics and hydrostatics, but his treatise Method Concerning Mechanical Theorems shows that he used mechanical reasoning as a heuristic device for the discovery of new mathematical theorems. He was best known for his discovery of the relation between the surface and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing cylinder, for hisformulation of a hydrostatic principle Archimedes' principle and for inventing the Archimedes screw (a device for raising water).

73. Euclid, Greek Mathematician 300 BC, greek mathematician. Little is known of his life other than the fact thathe taught at More on greek mathematician Euclid from Infoplease http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0817817.html

var zflag_nid="162"; var zflag_cid="57/1"; var zflag_sid="53"; var zflag_width="728"; var zflag_height="90"; var zflag_sz="14"; in All Infoplease Almanacs Biographies Dictionary Encyclopedia Daily Almanac for Sep 17, 2005 Skip Navigation Home Almanacs ... Word of the Day Editor's Favorites Hispanic Heritage Month Hurricane Katrina Daylight Saving Time Ramadan ... Mississippi Infoplease Tools Periodic Table Conversion Tool Perpetual Calendar Year by Year ... Site Map College Center Scholarship Search College Resources Career Center Job Search Post Your Resume Continuing Ed. more . . . Search: Infoplease Info search tips Search: Biographies Bio search tips google_ad_client = 'pub-1894504138907931'; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 240; google_ad_format = '120x240_as'; google_ad_type = 'text'; google_ad_channel =''; google_color_border = ['336699','B4D0DC','DFF2FD','B0E0E6']; google_color_bg = ['FFFFFF','ECF8FF','DFF2FD','FFFFFF']; google_color_link = ['0000FF','0000CC','0000CC','000000']; google_color_url = ['008000','008000','008000','336699']; google_color_text = ['000000','6F6F6F','000000','333333']; Encyclopedia Euclid [y OO Pronunciation Key Euclid , fl. 300

74. Mathematics (Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture) AstronomicalMathematical Collection In greek Parchment Tenth century One ofthe most powerful creations of greek science was the mathematical astronomy http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/math.html

The Library of Congress Exhibitions HOME Exhibition Sections: Introduction The Vatican Library Archaeology Humanism ... Credits MATHEMATICS Greek Mathematics and its Modern Heirs Ptolemy's Geography Greek Astronomy Greek Mathematics and its Modern Heirs Euclid, Elements In Greek Parchment Ninth century Euclid's Elements, written about 300 B.C., a comprehensive treatise on geometry, proportions, and the theory of numbers, is the most long-lived of all mathematical works. This manuscript preserves an early version of the text. Shown here is Book I Proposition 47, the Pythagorean Theorem: the square on the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the sides. This is a famous and important theorem that receives many notes in the manuscript. Archimedes, Works In Latin Translated by Jacobus Cremonensis ca. 1458 In the early 1450s, Pope Nicholas V commissioned Jacobus de Sancto Cassiano Cremonensis to make a new translation of Archimedes with the commentaries of Eutocius. This became the standard version and was finally printed in 1544. This early and very elegant manuscript may have been in the possession of Piero della Francesca before coming to the library of the Duke of Urbino. The pages displayed here show the beginning of Archimedes' On Conoids and Spheroids with highly ornate, and rather curious, illumination.

75. Euclid: Definition And Much More From Answers.com Eu·clid ( yu klid ) , Third century BC greek mathematician who applied thedeductive principles of logic to geometry, thereby deriving. http://www.answers.com/topic/euclid

showHide_TellMeAbout2('false'); Business Entertainment Games Health ... More... On this page: Dictionary Encyclopedia Science Wikipedia Mentioned In Or search: - The Web - Images - News - Blogs - Shopping Euclid Dictionary Eu·clid yÅ« klÄ­d , Third century B.C. Greek mathematician who applied the deductive principles of logic to geometry, thereby deriving statements from clearly defined axioms. Encyclopedia Euclid yÅ« klÄ­d ) , fl. 300 B.C. , Greek mathematician. Little is known of his life other than the fact that he taught at Alexandria, being associated with the school that grew up there in the late 4th cent. B.C. He is famous for his Elements, a presentation in thirteen books of the geometry and other mathematics known in his day. The first six books cover elementary plane geometry and have served since as the basis for most beginning courses on this subject. The other books of the Elements non-Euclidean geometry were deduced, one by Nikolai I. Lobachevsky (1826) and independently by J¡nos Bolyai (1832) and another by Bernhard Riemann (1854). A few modern historians have questioned Euclid's authorship of the Elements

76. Archimedes: Biography And Much More From Answers.com greek mathematician, engineer, and physicist. Among the most important intellectual Meaning 1 greek mathematician and physicist noted for his work in http://www.answers.com/topic/archimedes

showHide_TellMeAbout2('false'); Business Entertainment Games Health ... More... On this page: Personalities Scientist Dictionary Encyclopedia Science WordNet Essay Wikipedia Misspellings Mentioned In Or search: - The Web - Images - News - Blogs - Shopping Archimedes Personalities Source Archimedes Mathematician / Engineer Born: ca. 287 B.C. Birthplace: Syracuse, Sicily Died: ca. 212 B.C. Best Known As: Ancient Greek mathematician who said "Eureka!" FOUR GOOD LINKS Archimedes Details of his life and inventions, with many graphics and explanations Archimedes Profile from the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archimedes, of Syracuse Short version that sums up his achievements Archimedes Straightforward biography from an online calculus textbook Scientist Archimedes Archimedes Library of Congress [b. Syracuse, Sicily, c. 287 bce , d. Syracuse, c. 212 bce A few great humans have managed to excel in science, mathematics, and engineering, but none so noticeably as Archimedes. Mathematicians rank Archimedes among the greatest of all time; although his contributions to physics are not quite in the same class, they, like everything Archimedes touched, are elegant, original, and important. Archimedes was born in Syracuse in southeastern Sicily, the principal Greek city-state on the island. Syracuse had a long tradition of intellectual achievement, having been for a time the home of both Aeschylus and Pindar. Nevertheless, Alexandria was the center of learning for the Hellenic world, and Archimedes is said to have studied there.

77. Archimedes - Early Years And Mathematics - Succeed Through Studying Biographies Biography of ancient greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes Succeed throughStudying Biographies. http://www.school-for-champions.com/biographies/archimedes.htm

The School for Champions is an educational website that helps you become a champion and encourages you to help others. School for Champions Biographies Famous Speeches History ... Good Grades Biography of ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes. Also refer to Euclid, geometry, integral calculus, water pump, pi, area, volume, Syracuse, Carthage, Rome, Romans, Marcellus, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Archimedes - Early Years and Mathematics by Ron Kurtus (revised 17 May 2005) Archimedes (287-212 BC) was a great ancient Greek mathematician and scientist. He was educated in Egypt by followers of the famous mathematician, Euclid. Archimedes later devised ways to calculate areas and volumes, defined pi, and formulated integral calculus. But it was his inventions such as a water pump and discoveries such as hydrostatics, that made him famous in his time. Some of his inventions are still used today. There were several wars during his lifetime, and he was killed when the Romans overran his city. Questions you may have about his early years include: What was Archimedes' education like?

78. Princeton - PWB 111599 - Thinking About Math he begins to discuss the ancient greek mathematician Archimedes. Conway wovetogether the nuances of the ancient greek s mathematical proofs with http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/99/1115/math.shtml

Princeton Weekly Bulletin November 15, 1999 Vol. 89, No. 9 archive Features Thinking about math Real-world problems Randall manages musical banquet In print ... Notices Sections Calendar Employment Page one In the news ... Athletics Thinking About Math John Conway (Photo by Peter Murphy) Public lecture series draws students, professors, professionals, highschoolers By Steven Schultz It's Wednesday night, and A10 Jadwin is filling up fast.Well before the speaker is scheduled to start, there's not a seat to be had; nearly 200 students, professors, professionals and even local highschool students cram themselves into every bit of floor space. A large man with a wiry gray beard and a T-shirt printed with a design by M.C. Escher walks to the front of the hall: John Conway, John Von Neumann Professor in Applied and Computational Mathematics. With a brief quip about how he wasn't sure he'd have an audience, he begins to discuss the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. The sole surviving record of Archimedes' work in the original Greek is a palimpsest, a papyrus document that was written on, erased, then turned and used again. Modern technology enables scholars to puzzle out the bottom layer of text underneath the later writing.

79. History Of Mathematics [encyclopedia] The greek mathematical tradition lasted for several further centuries, notablyin Alexandria, and ranged from the astronomical and geographical work, http://kosmoi.com/Science/Mathematics/History/

EncycloZine Astronomy Biology Chemistry ... The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Disco... James D. Watson A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson Salt: A World History Mark Kurlansky Recommendation: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing Ame... Harm De Blij The Equation that Couldn't Be Solved : How Mathema... Mario Livio The Knife Man : The Extraordinary Life and Times o... Wendy Moore The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadlie... John M. Barry Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societi... Jared Diamond The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the Wo... Michael Pollan History of Mathematics Kosmoi.com Science Mathematics History The earliest mathematical writer whose name we know was the Egyptian scribe Ahmes, who in c.1650 ¬BC copied an earlier text on handling fractions and solving arithmetical problems. But for at least 1000 years before that, the scribes in the great river civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia were developing ways of representing numbers and solving problems which are recognizably precursors of today's mathematical activity. A significant change was introduced by Greek-speaking people around the E Mediterranean during 500200 ¬BC: the development of the notion of proving results as a fundamental characteristic of mathematical activity. A research tradition in

80. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2000.02.17 J. Klein, greek Mathematical Thought and the Origins of Algebra, (Cambridge, MA,1968). See Netz, p. 50; also, p. 56 n. 118. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-02-17.html

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2000.02.17 Reviel Netz, The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics. "Ideas in Context", 51 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. 327. ISBN 0-521-62279-4. $64.95. Reviewed by Daryn Lehoux, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto Word count: 2974 words The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics N. is never thinking in small terms. In this book he is constantly working to keep his arguments applicable to more general and larger questions than just the immediate and particular ones he is raising. He wants his book to "be read on three levels: first as a description of the practices of Greek mathematics; second as a theory of the emergence of the deductive method; third, as a case-study for a general view on the history of science" (p. 1). N. admirably succeeds in juggling this multiplicity, although his book works best, I think, on the second and third of the three levels. The work will be a necessary read for anyone interested in the history of Greek mathematics but will also be interesting to a wider audience, particularly philosophers of science and intellectual historians. Many non-specialists will want to skip over some of the long technical arguments, particularly in the middle chapters, and N. has accordingly provided clear summaries at the beginnings and ends of each chapter for those wishing to move on more quickly. The first and last chapters, however, should be read in their entirety as they do a great deal (indeed, most) of N.'s argumentative work.

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