41. Archimedes Scholar Finds Something To Holler 'Eureka!' About the book contained the ancient Greek mathematician s previously unknown and that this was something the greek mathematicians never attempted to do http://www.light-science.com/stanfordmath.html

Journal of scientists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and inventors biographies with science projects. Home ANC News Animals Biographies ... US Geological Survey If you have questions concerning this website, contact webmaster@light-science.com Physics Fair experiments . Light and water, ping-pong-ball, polarization, liquid nitrogen, disgusting, and tornado. The Physics of Everyday Stuff, by Sam Hokin Explains gun recoil, skidmark forensics, shotput, icebergs, high wire electrical transmissions and figure skater spins. The Wonders of Physics Physics science projects to do at home and videos of traveling physics show. WFU Online Demonstration Index Bed of nails, tablecloth pulling, monkey hunter, rotating person, electromagnetic launcher, plus others. Physics 2000 Explains CAT scans, X-rays, lasers, em waves, periodic table, and quantum atom Little Shop of Physics Colorado State University's hands-on science outreach program. Fermilabyrinth: Entrance Code crackers, law and order, ghost bustin', and warp speed. Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) Non-profit organization of teachers, educators, and physicists located around the world.

42. Untitled Document It has always been thought that modern mathematicians were the first to be and that this was something the greek mathematicians never attempted to do http://www.sas.org/E-Bulletin/2002-11-15/features/body.html

15 November 2002 Ancient Text Shakes Up the History of Pre-Calculus BY John Sanford Reprinted from The Stanford Report, November 6, 2002 R eviel Netz, an assistant professor of classics, might not have actually shouted "Eureka!" on a visit last year to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, but that's what he was thinking. A scholar of Greek mathematics, Netz was hanging out with one of his colleagues and frequent collaborators, Professor Ken Saito of the Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, when they flew together to Baltimore in January 2001 to look at a recently rediscovered codex of Archimedes treatises. "It was basically just tourism," Netz recalled. On a lark they examined a theretofore unread section of The Method of Mechanical Theorems , which is the book's biggest claim to fame; no other copy of the work is known to exist. What they discovered made their jaws drop. A section from The Archimedes Palimpsest, which classics Professor Reviel Netz stumbled on during a visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Closer examination showed the Greeks understood the concept of infinity. Missing The Archimedes Palimpsest, as the book is called, is in terrible shape. (A palimpsest is a manuscript that has been written on more than once; in this case, a 13th-century Greek prayer book overlays the 10th-century script of the treatises.) The pages have been battered, gouged, scorched by fire and blotched by fungus. Without the use of computer technology, they would be mostly unreadable.

43. Archimedes Scholar Finds Something To Holler 'Eureka!' About Conventional wisdom has it that ancient greek mathematicians disliked dealingwith infinity. Now researchers have discovered that Archimedes used infinitely http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-11/su-asf110802.php

Public release date: 8-Nov-2002 E-mail Article Contact: John Sanford jsanford@stanford.edu Stanford University Archimedes scholar finds something to holler 'Eureka!' about Reviel Netz, an assistant professor of classics, might not have actually shouted "Eureka!" on a visit last year to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, but that's what he was thinking. A scholar of Greek mathematics, Netz was hanging out with one of his colleagues and frequent collaborators, Professor Ken Saito of the Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, when they flew together to Baltimore in January 2001 to look at a recently rediscovered codex of Archimedes treatises. "It was basically just tourism," Netz recalled. On a lark they examined a theretofore unread section of The Method of Mechanical Theorems, which is the book's biggest claim to fame; no other copy of the work is known to exist. What they discovered made their jaws drop. Missing The Archimedes Palimpsest, as the book is called, is in terrible shape. (A palimpsest is a manuscript that has been written on more than once; in this case, a 13th-century Greek prayer book overlays the 10th-century script of the treatises.) The pages have been battered, gouged, scorched by fire and blotched by fungus. Without the use of computer technology, they would be mostly unreadable. But when the palimpsest caught the attention of the great Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg in 1906, the underlying script was much more legible. At that time, the volume was in a library collection in Constantinople - present-day Istanbul - and, until Heiberg went to examine it, nobody seems to have realized its importance; the book contained the ancient Greek mathematician's previously unknown treatise on The Method of Mechanical Theorems.

44. Geometry History Books Archimedes is considered the greatest of greek mathematicians. Archimedes isregarded as the greatest of the greek mathematicians and physicists. http://geometryalgorithms.com/books_history.shtml

History Books Home Overview History Algorithms ... Mathematics History Books Journals Proceedings The story of geometry's evolution can be found in our recommended books categorized as follows: Comprehensive Ancient Greek Modern Also, check out our Short History of Geometry with mini-biographies of history's most influential geometers. Comprehensive Geometry History Books The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi by Mario Livio Average Customer Review: New: Out of Stock List: Buy Used from: For the Greeks, the golden ratio was second only to pi. This book traces its history from the Greek origin through the middle ages to modern times. The exposition uses this to give a brief history of math and the place of phi in it. It further shows how phi crops up in many natural phenomenon, but is careful to debunk the many myths surrounding this number. Overall, this is an enjoyable read for both the professional and lay mathematician. Polyhedra by Peter Cromwell Average Customer Review: New: Buy Used from: This book thoroughly documents the many and varied ways that polyhedra have surfaced throughout the development of mathematics from ancient to modern times. Additionally, it contains a lot of rigorous math describing the properties of polyhedra and their influence on many branches of mathematics. In effect, this book teaches about polyhedra using historical evolution as the pedagogic device to expose them. The result is a first rate historical exposition that should be read by all geometers.

45. The Classical Greek Problems The greek mathematicians thus needed to find a way to construct this quantity The ancient greek mathematicians also could not find a proof for angle http://www.math.rutgers.edu/courses/436/Honors02/classical.html

The Classical Greek Problems Patricia DiJoseph There were three problems that the ancient Greeks (600BC to 400AD) tried unsuccssfully to solve by Euclidean methods, all of which were proven unsolvable by these means as much as two thousand years later, as a result of progress in algebra, and the idea of analytic geometry in the sense of Descartes. The Greeks wanted to solve these problems using only a Euclidean constructions, or as they themselves called them, "plane" methods. Though they were never able to do so ( as they cannot be done this way, they did find a series of remarkably clever constructions using more powerful techniques, involving so-called "solid" and "mechanical" methods, as well as a technique called "verging". Then, in the 19th century, the impossibility of finding purely Euclidean constructions for these problems was finally proved. The three classical Greek problems were problems of geometry: doubling the cube, angle trisection, and squaring a circle. Duplication of the cube is the problem of determining the length of the sides of a cube whose volume is double that of a given c ube. A cube by definition is a three dimensional shape comprised of a height, width, and depth all of the same magnitude s. To find its volume, one multiplies the length (s) by the width (s) and then by the depth (s): the volume is s(s(s or s3. Diagram not converted, here and below

46. Greek.htm greek mathematicians. Pythagoras (500 BC). He developed the first general proofof the Pythagorean theorem. The square of the longest side of the right http://www.germantownacademy.org/academics/US/Math/Geometry/stwk98/RYANMS/Greek.

Greek Mathematicians Pythagoras (500 BC) He developed the first general proof of the Pythagorean theorem. The square of the longest side of the right triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. He discovered the existence of irrational numbers and created doctrines which inspired the systematic study of mathematics and the numeral aspects of musical harmony. Plato (428-348 BC) One of the world's greatest philosophers, he expanded Greek learning throughout the world in astronomy, mathematics, and metaphysics. He developed the Academy and taught philosophy and different levels of mathematics as well as theoretical astronomy. Euclid (300 BC) Euclid made great Advancements in Geometry. He developed the revolutionary progress in the analysis of two and three- dimensional space. He created the geometry that endures to this day known as Euclidean Geometry. Archimedes (287-212 BC) He determined the areas and volumes of numerous geometric figures and derived equations for them. Eratosthenes (275-194 BC) He pioneered mathematical geography. He caculated the circumference of the earth with astonishing accuracy for his time.

47. MSN Encarta - Mathematics About 300 bc Euclid, a Greek mathematician who taught in Alexandria, Egypt,organized the work of many greek mathematicians in a masterful work called the http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578291_6/Mathematics.html

MSN Home My MSN Hotmail Shopping ... Sign In Web Search: Encarta Subscriber Sign In Help Home ... Upgrade your Encarta Experience Search Encarta Upgrade your Encarta Experience Spend less time searching and more time learning. Learn more Tasks Find in this article Print Preview Related Items Math Homework Help Mathematics more... Further Reading Editors' picks for Mathematics Search for books and more related to Mathematics Encarta Search Search Encarta about Mathematics Editors' Picks Great books about your topic, Mathematics ... Click here Advertisement Page 6 of 12 Mathematics Encyclopedia Article Multimedia 45 items Article Outline Introduction Mathematics: The Language of Science Branches of Mathematics History of Mathematics a Number System The Greek number system was based on the alphabet. The Attic system, in use from 600 bc to 200 bc , used a stroke for 1 and the initial letters of the words for 5, 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000—namely, the initials of pente deka hekaton khilioi , and myrioi —to represent the respective numbers. A later system assigned number values to the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet and to 3 other letters that were no longer used. The letters could be combined to form numbers through 999. For higher numbers, a stroke preceding the initial letter (1 through 9) indicated a multiple of 1,000 (1,000 through 9,000). For 10,000 and above, the symbol M indicated that the numeral below should be multiplied by 10,000. See also Numerals b Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans Pythagoras taught the importance of studying numbers in order to understand the world. We know of his achievements only from his disciples, the Pythagoreans, who made important discoveries about number theory and geometry. The Pythagoreans represented whole numbers by using arrangements of dots or pebbles, and classified these numbers according to the shapes produced. (The English word

48. Four Problems Of Antiquity Three geometric questions raised by the early greek mathematicians attained thestatus of classical problems in Mathematics. These are http://www.cut-the-knot.com/arithmetic/antiquity.shtml

Username: Password: Sites for teachers Sites for parents Awards Interactive Activities ... Sites for parents Four Problems Of Antiquity Three geometric questions raised by the early Greek mathematicians attained the status of classical problems in Mathematics. These are: Doubling of the cube Construct a cube whose volume is double that of a given one. Angle trisection Trisect an arbitrary angle. Squaring a circle Construct a square whose area equals that of a given circle. Often another problem is attached to the list: Construct a regular heptagon (a polygon with 7 sides.) The problems are legendary not because they did not have solutions, or the solutions they had were unusually hard. No, numerous simple solutions have been found yet by Greek mathematicians. The problem was in that all known solutions violated an important condition for this kind of problems, one condition imposed by the Greek mathematicians themselves: Valid solutions to the construction problems are assumed to consist of a finite number of steps of only two kinds: drawing a straight line with a ruler (or rather a straightedge as no marks are allowed on the ruler) and drawing a circle. You are referred to solutions of problems and as examples of existent solutions. That no solution exists subject to the self-imposed constraints have been proven only in the 19th century.

49. Historia Matematica Mailing List Archive: [HM] Even The Greatest Greek Mathemati HM Even the greatest greek mathematicians couldn t do this! Why couldn teven the greatest ancient greek mathematicians factor the Trojan monarch? http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec98/0011.html

[HM] Even the greatest Greek mathematicians couldn't do this! Samuel S. Kutler s-kutler@sjca.edu Tue, 1 Dec 1998 19:55:08 -0500 (EST) Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] Next message: John F Harper: "Re: [HM] Even the greatest Greek mathematicians couldn't do this!" Previous message: Martin Davis: "Re: [HM] Goethe's Remark" Friends: Why couldn't even the greatest ancient Greek mathematicians factor the Trojan monarch? Best wishes, Sam Kutler Next message: John F Harper: "Re: [HM] Even the greatest Greek mathematicians couldn't do this!" Previous message: Martin Davis: "Re: [HM] Goethe's Remark"

50. Alphabet Greek Astronomy Greek number systems greek mathematicians sources Greekmathematics - sources Harriot s manuscripts Hirst s diary comments http://www.chaffey.edu/MathWeb/html/alpha.html

I f you need help with math, click here. When you need help with math, think of the Math Success Center. www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Indexes/HistoryTopics.html Topics Covered Abstract group concept Abstract linear spaces Arabic mathematics : forgotten brilliance? Arabic numerals Babylonian mathematics Babylonian numerals Babylonian Pythagoras’ theorem Bakhshali manuscript Chronology of Pi Chrystal and the Royal Society of Edinburgh Cosmology Doubling the cube e Egyptian mathematics Egyptian numerals Egyptian papyri Elliptic functions English attack on the Longitude Problem Fermat's last theorem Four colour theorem Fundamental theorem of algebra General relativity Golden ratio Greek Astronomy Greek number systems Greek mathematicians - sources Greek mathematics - sources Harriot's manuscripts Hirst's diary comments History of calculus History of the number e History of group theory History of mathematics at St Andrews to 1700 History of Pi History of Quantum mechanics History of Set Theory History of Zero History of Topology How do we know about Greek mathematicians?

51. History Of Mathematics, Math History University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Greek Mathematics Information Guide Greek Mathematics here via data on the works of greek mathematicians and http://www.buzzle.com/chapters/education-and-higher-learning_primary-and-seconda

Home Web Directory What's the Buzz? Escape Hatch ... Free Email Friday, September 16, 2005 7:40:07 PM DIRECTORY Primary and Secondary Education Mathematics History of Mathematics Chapter Quicklink What's the Buzz Escape Hatch: Open Mic History of Mathematics Throughout history, the goal of mathematics education has been to develop accurate and logical thinking in individuals so they can apply their newly gained knowledge to solving all kinds of problems. Math is therefore an important course of educational study, especially in preparing college students for careers in business, engineering, medicine, psychology and the various sciences. This section provides math history resources that focus on the history of mathematics and the individuals and groups that have made contributions to this area of study. Advanced Network and Services: Library: Mathematics Historical Time Periods Guide Learn at this site provided by Advanced Network and Services about the history of mathematics that are categorized by various civilizations, time periods and geographical regions. Advanced Network and Services: Think Quest Junior: Ancient Babylonian and Greek Mathematics Guide Go here for various data on the history of mathematics from ancient Babylonian and Greek math to the calculus, geometry and trigonometry used in modern mathematics and physics.

52. Math --term Paper Examples On Mathematics .. History Of, Formulas, & More -- Ter This 10 page paper gives a brief overview of the Greek mathematician, Euclid . study of early greek mathematicians and their cultural significance. http://www.papers24-7.com/papers_on_mathematics.htm

Math Papers Now ! All Papers On-File Are Only $ onfiles /Page! **SAME DAY DELIVERY!** MORE EXAMPLE TERM PAPERS ON MATHEMATICS A 15 page paper that provides an overview of the history and development of the abacus. The report essentially compares the Chinese, Roman, Greek, Russian and Indian counting methods utilizing similar instruments. Bibliography lists 6 sources. Abacus.doc Benefits Of Computer-Taught Math Over Standard Textbook Practices A 10 page study that provides support for the hypothesis that computer taught math provides significant beneficial outcomes for learners in terms of test scores. Bibliography lists 10 sources. Mtcomp.wps Differential Equations An 18 page research paper on every available aspect of differential equations including Laplace Transforms and much more. A number of graphical illustrations are provided and the bibliography lists more than 8 sources. Diffequa.wps Linear Algebra A 15 page research paper on various concepts in linear algebra. The writer details multivariables, vectors, determinants, gaussian elimination, and other elements of linear algebra. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

53. Chapter 1: Mathematical Preliminaries greek mathematicians associated magnitude with the lengths of lines or the areaof surfaces and so developed methods of computation which went a step beyond http://research.opt.indiana.edu/Library/FourierBook/ch01.html

Chapter 1: Mathematical Preliminaries Table of Contents 1.A Introduction These ancients understood how to figure the area of the polygon, but they were never convinced that the area of the polygon would ever exactly match that of the circle, regardless of how large N grew. This conceptual hurdle was so high that it stood as a barrier for 2,000 years before it was cleared by the great minds of the 17th century who invented the concept of limits which is fundamental to the Calculus (Boyer, 1949) . My teaching experience suggests there are still a great many ancient Greeks in our midst, and they usually show their colors first in Fourier analysis when attempting to make the transition from discretely sampled functions to continuous functions. When geometrical intuition fails, analytical reasoning may come to the rescue. If the location of a point in 3-dimensional space is just a list of three numbers (x,y,z), then to locate a point in 4-dimensional space we only need to extend the list (w,x,y,z) by starting a bit earlier in the alphabet! Similarly, we may get around some conceptual difficulties by replacing geometrical objects and manipulations with analytical equations and computations. For these reasons, the early chapters of these coursenotes will carry a dual presentation of ideas, one geometrical and the other analytical. It is hoped that the redundancy of this approach will help the student achieve a depth of understanding beyond that obtained by either method alone.

54. Mathematics Term Papers...Research Papers About Mathematics... paper gives a brief overview of the Greek mathematician, Euclid. He was the chiefarchitect A 12 page comprehensive study of early greek mathematicians http://www.researchpapers.net/papers_on_mathematics2.htm

Accounting Africa AIDS / HIV Animal Rights ... Zoology All Research Papers Are Only $ / page + FREE Bibliography Same-Day Delivery - 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days a Week ! Papers On Mathematics - last page in category - (Page 2) Strategies : This 5 page paper provides an overview of the game of Blackjack. A brief history and explanation of the game is included but the focus is on methods used to increase the commonsense ratios are discussed and other strategies are explained in detail. Bibliography lists 5 sources. Blakjack.wps The Science of Escher / Symmetry and Metaphor : A 10 page paper that provides an overview of the elements of science in the works of Escher, with a focus on symmetry and metaphor based in his mathematical approach. Bibliography lists 8 sources. Escher.doc Girolamo Cardano / Mathematician : 8 pages in length. Cardano was a 16 century Italian mathematician best known for his work entitled "Ars magna" (the "Great Art"), from which

55. PSIgate - Physical Sciences Information Gateway Search/Browse Results How do we know about greek mathematicians? Ancient Greek index History TopicsIndex Version for printing There are two separate articles How do we know http://www.psigate.ac.uk/roads/cgi-bin/search_webcatalogue2.pl?limit=3100&term1=

56. When Is A Triangle Not A Triangle During the third century BCE, greek mathematicians and astronomers developed Triangles were central to Greek mathematical thinking, beginning with the http://www.cityu.edu.hk/ccs/Newsletter/newsletter5/Triangle.htm

When is a Triangle Not a Triangle? Lisa Raphals and celestial distances, including the distance to the ¡§ends of the earth¡¨ and the ¡§height of heaven.¡¨ They incorrectly assumed that the earth was flat, but correctly assumed that the sun was a finite, and measurable, distance from the earth. Their calculations were less accurate than Eratosthenes¡¦, but no less mathematically well reasoned. Similar Triangles in Greek Astronomy During the third century B.C.E., Greek mathematicians and astronomers developed hypotheses and calculations regarding the motion and sizes and distance of the sun, moon and earth. Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 B.C.E.) is best known as the first Greek exponent of a heliocentric theory, a view that his contemporaries rejected because it conflicted with the commonsense view that the earth did not move. In his one surviving work, he used assumptions and the properties of similar triangles to ¡§demonstrate¡¨ ratios between the diameters of the earth, sun and moon and their distances from each other. For example: ¡§The distance of the sun from the earth is greater than 18 times, but less than 20 times the distance of the moon from the earth.¡¨ The Greek text is a list of procedures for naming points and drawing lines and circles between them, with no visual representation. (Modern editions and translations typically add an illustrative diagram.) The Greek text has the look and feel of a proof by deduction from the properties of similar triangles, rather than calculation from actual measurements.

57. BSHM: Abstracts -- N Netz, Reviel, ‘Greek mathematical diagrams their use and their meaning’, Before writing down a proof, greek mathematicians would have outlined it http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/abstracts/N.html

The British Society for the History of Mathematics HOME About BSHM BSHM Council Join BSHM ... Search BSHM Abstracts A B C D ... Z These listings contain all abstracts that have appeared in BSHM Newsletters up to Newsletter 46. BSHM Abstracts - N e In the early 19th century, local theory of geodesics was well known as an application of infinitesimal calculus to geometry, although equations for geodesics were generally hard to solve. With the work of Jacobi, Sturm and Liouville, a global qualitative treatment of geodesics emerged, through study of the conjugate locus, the cut locus and examination of global topological conditions. Mathematical intelligencer Nabonnand, Philippe, 2000, ‘La polémique entre Poincaré et Russell au sujet du statut des axiomes de la géométrie’, Revue d’histoire des mathématiques At the close of the nineteenth century, philosophical discussions about geometry and space strongly influenced both the concepts and development of geometry. Both Poincaré and Russell in their discussions about the axioms of geometry used mathematics to support their philosophical arguments, and their respective philosophies in turn influenced their thoughts about geometry. Nagel, Fritz, ‘A catalogue of the works of Jacob Hermann (1678-1733)’

58. Untitled Document geometrical formulations of greek mathematicians such as Euclid, one ofthe Vedic texts predating Euclid and the greek mathematicians by at least a http://www.infinityfoundation.com/ECITmathframe.html

Indic Mathematics: India and the Scientific Revolution Dr. David Gray 1. Math and Ethnocentrism The study of mathematics in the West has long been characterized by a certain ethnocentric bias, a bias which most often manifests not in explicit racism, but in a tendency toward undermining or eliding the real contributions made by non-Western civilizations. The debt owed by the West to other civilizations, and to India in particular, go back to the earliest epoch of the "Western" scientific tradition, the age of the classical Greeks, and continued up until the dawn of the modern era, the renaissance, when Europe was awakening from its dark ages. This awakening was in part made possible by the rediscovery of mathematics and other sciences and technologies through the medium of the Arabs, who transmitted to Europe both their own lost heritage as well as the advanced mathematical traditions formulated in India. George Ghevarughese Joseph, in an important article entitled "Foundations of Eurocentrism in Mathematics," argued that "the standard treatment of the history of non-European mathematics is a product of historiographical bias (conscious or otherwise) in the selection and interpretation of facts, which, as a consequence, results in ignoring, devaluing or distorting contributions arising outside European mathematical traditions." (1987:14) Due to the legacy of colonialism, the exploitation of which was ideologically justified through a doctrine of racial superiority, the contributions of non-European civilizations were often ignored, or, as Joseph argued, even distorted, in that they were often misattributed as European, i.e. Greek, contributions, and when their contributions were so great as to resist such treatment, they were typically devalued, considered inferior or irrelevant to Western mathematical traditions.

59. Scholars Decode Ancient Text, Shake Up Pre-calculus History: 11/02 the book contained the ancient Greek mathematician s previously unknown and that this was something the greek mathematicians never attempted to do, http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/november6/archimedes-116.html

Stanford Report, November 6, 2002 Scholars decode ancient text, shake up pre-calculus history BY JOHN SANFORD Reviel Netz, an assistant professor of classics, might not have actually shouted "Eureka!" on a visit last year to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, but that's what he was thinking. A scholar of Greek mathematics, Netz was hanging out with one of his colleagues and frequent collaborators, Professor Ken Saito of the Osaka Prefecture University in Japan, when they flew together to Baltimore in January 2001 to look at a recently rediscovered codex of Archimedes treatises. "It was basically just tourism," Netz recalled. On a lark they examined a theretofore unread section of The Method of Mechanical Theorems , which is the book's biggest claim to fame; no other copy of the work is known to exist. What they discovered made their jaws drop. A section from The Archimedes Palimpsest, which classics Professor Reviel Netz stumbled on during a visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Closer examination showed the Greeks understood the concept of infinity. ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, WALTERS ART MUSEUM, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

60. Arabic Mathematics Explains contributions of Arabian mathematicians by translating early greek texts, developing early algebraic ideas, number theory and astronomical calculations. Includes information about key people during this time period. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Arabic_mathematics.html

Arabic mathematics : forgotten brilliance? Alphabetical list of History Topics History Topics Index Version for printing Recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier. In many respects the mathematics studied today is far closer in style to that of the Arabic/Islamic contribution than to that of the Greeks. There is a widely held view that, after a brilliant period for mathematics when the Greeks laid the foundations for modern mathematics, there was a period of stagnation before the Europeans took over where the Greeks left off at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The common perception of the period of 1000 years or so between the ancient Greeks and the European Renaissance is that little happened in the world of mathematics except that some Arabic translations of Greek texts were made which preserved the Greek learning so that it was available to the Europeans at the beginning of the sixteenth century. That such views should be generally held is of no surprise. Many leading historians of mathematics have contributed to the perception by either omitting any mention of Arabic/Islamic mathematics in the historical development of the subject or with statements such as that made by Duhem in [3]:-

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