HELLENISTIC MATHEMATICS - EUCLID

The Greek mathematician Euclid lived and flourished in Alexandria in

Egypt around 300 BCE, during the reign of Ptolemy I. Almost nothing
is known of his life, and no likeness or first-hand description of his
physical appearance has survived antiquity, and so depictions of him
(with a long flowing beard and cloth cap) in works of art are
necessarily the products of the artist's imagination.

He probably studied for a time at Plato's Academy in Athens but, by

Euclid's time, Alexandria, under the patronage of the Ptolemies and
with its prestigious and comprehensive Library, had already become a Euclid (c.330-275 BCE, fl. c.300
worthy rival to the great Academy. BCE)

Euclid’s method for constructing of an equilateral triangle from a given

straight line segment AB using only a compass and straight edge was
Proposition 1 in Book 1 of the "Elements"

Euclid is often referred to as the “Father of Geometry”, and he wrote perhaps the most important and
successful mathematical textbook of all time, the “Stoicheion” or “Elements”, which represents the
culmination of the mathematical revolution which had taken place in Greece up to that time. He also wrote
works on the division of geometrical figures into into parts in given ratios, on catoptrics (the mathematical
theory of mirrors and reflection), and on spherical astronomy (the determination of the location of objects
on the "celestial sphere"), as well as important texts on optics and music.

The "Elements” was a lucid and comprehensive compilation and explanation of all the known
mathematics of his time, including the work of Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Theudius, Theaetetus and
Eudoxus. In all, it contains 465 theorems and proofs, described in a clear, logical and elegant style, and
using only a compass and a straight edge. Euclid reworked the mathematical concepts of his
predecessors into a consistent whole, later to become known as Euclidean geometry, which is still as
valid today as it was 2,300 years ago, even in higher mathematics dealing with higher dimensional
spaces. It was only with the work of Bolyai, Lobachevski and Riemann in the first half of the 19th Century
that any kind of non-Euclidean geometry was even considered.
The "Elements” remained the definitive textbook on geometry and mathematics for well over two
millennia, surviving the eclipse in classical learning in Europe during the Dark Ages through Arabic
translations. It set, for all time, the
model for mathematical argument,
following logical deductions from
inital assumptions (which Euclid
called “axioms” and "postulates") in
order to establish proven theorems.

Euclid’s five general axioms were:

1. Things which are equal to

the same thing are equal to
each other.
2. If equals are added to
equals, the wholes (sums)
are equal.
3. If equals are subtracted
from equals, the remainders
(differences) are equal.
4. Things that coincide with
one another are equal to
one another.
5. The whole is greater than Euclid’s Postulates (1 - 5)
the part.

His five geometrical postulates

were:

1. It is possible to draw a straight line from any point to any point.

2. It is possible to extend a finite straight line continuously in a straight line (i.e. a line segment can
be extended past either of its endpoints to form an arbitrarily large line segment).
3. It is possible to create a circle with any center and distance (radius).
4. All right angles are equal to one another (i.e. "half" of a straight angle).
5. If a straight line crossing two straight lines makes the interior angles on the same side less than
two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced indefinitely, meet on that side on which the
angles are less than the two right angles.
Among many other mathematical
gems, the thirteen volumes of the
“Elements” contain formulas for
calculating the volumes of solids
such as cones, pyramids and
cylinders; proofs about geometric
series, perfect numbers and primes;
algorithms for finding the greatest
common divisor and least common
multiple of two numbers; a proof
and generalization of Pythagoras’
Theorem, and proof that there are
an infinite number of Pythagorean
Triples; and a final definitive proof
that there can be only five possible
regular Platonic Solids.

However, the “Elements” also

includes a series of theorems on
the properties of numbers and
integers, marking the first real
beginnings of number theory. For Part of Euclid’s proof of Pythagoras’ Theorem
example, Euclid proved what has
become known as the Fundamental
Theorem of Arithmethic (or the
Unique Factorization Theorem), that every positive integer greater than 1 can be written as a product of
prime numbers (or is itself a prime number). Thus, for example: 21 = 3 x 7; 113 = 1 x 113; 1,200 = 2 x 2 x
2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 5; 6,936 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 17 x 17; etc. His proof was the first known example of a proof by
contradiction (where any counter-example, which would otherwise prove an idea false, is shown to makes
no logical sense itself).

He was the first to realize - and prove - that there are infinitely many prime numbers. The basis of his
proof, often known as Euclid’s Theorem, is that, for any given (finite) set of primes, if you multiply all of
them together and then add one, then a new prime has been added to the set (for example, 2 x 3 x 5 =
30, and 30 + 1 = 31, a prime number) a process which can be repeated indefinitely.

Euclid also identified the first four “perfect numbers”, numbers that are the sum of all their divisors
(excluding the number itself):
    6 = 1 + 2 + 3;
    28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14;
    496 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 31 + 62 + 124 + 248; and
    8,128 = 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 127 + 254 + 508 + 1,016 + 2,032 + 4,064.
He noted that these numbers also have many other interesting properties. For example:

 They are triangular numbers, and therefore the sum of all the consecutive numbers up to their largest
prime factor: 6 = 1 + 2 + 3; 28 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7; 496 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + .... + 30 + 31; 8,128 =
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + ... + 126 + 127.
 Their largest prime factor is a power of 2 less one, and the number is always a product of this number
and the previous power of two: 6 = 21(22 - 1); 28 = 22(23 - 1); 496 = 24(25 - 1); 8,128 = 26(27 - 1).

Although the Pythagoreans may have been aware of the Golden Ratio (φ, approximately equal to 1.618),
Euclid was the first to define it in terms of ratios (AB:AC = AC:CB), and demonstrated its appearance
within many geometric shapes.
HELLENISTIC
MATHEMATICS
By the 3rd Century BCE, in the
wake of the conquests of Alexander
the Great, mathematical
breakthroughs were also beginning
to be made on the edges of the
Greek Hellenistic empire.

In particular, Alexandria in Egypt

became a great centre of learning
under the beneficent rule of the
Ptolemies, and its famous Library
soon gained a reputation to rival
that of the Athenian Academy. The
patrons of the Library were arguably
the first professional scientists, paid
for their devotion to research.
Among the best known and most
influential mathematicians who
studied and taught at Alexandria
were Euclid, Archimedes,
Eratosthenes, Heron, Menelaus and The Sieve of Eratosthenes
Diophantus.

During the late 4th and early 3rd

Century BCE, Euclid was the great chronicler of the mathematics of the time, and one of the most
influential teachers in history. He virtually invented classical (Euclidean) geometry as we know it.
Archimedes spent most of his life in Syracuse, Sicily, but also studied for a while in Alexandria. He is
perhaps best known as an engineer and inventor but, in the light of recent discoveries, he is now
considered of one of the greatest pure mathematicians of all time. Eratosthenes of Alexandria was a near
contemporary of Archimedes in the 3rd Century BCE. A mathematician, astronomer and geographer, he
devised the first system of latitude and longitude, and calculated the circumference of the earth to a
remarkable degree of accuracy. As a mathematician, his greatest legacy is the “Sieve of Eratosthenes”
algorithm for identifying prime numbers.
It is not known exactly when the
great Library of Alexandria burned
down, but Alexandria remained an
important intellectual centre for
some centuries. In the 1st century
BCE, Heron (or Hero) was another
great Alexandrian inventor, best
known in mathematical circles for
Heronian triangles (triangles with
integer sides and integer area),
Heron’s Formula for finding the area
of a triangle from its side lengths,
and Heron’s Method for iteratively
computing a square root. He was
also the first mathematician to
confront at least the idea of √-1
(although he had no idea how to
treat it, something which had to wait
for Tartaglia and Cardano in the
16th Century). Menelaus of Alexandria introduced the concept of spherical triangle

Menelaus of Alexandria, who lived

in the 1st - 2nd Century CE, was
the first to recognize geodesics on a curved surface as the natural analogues of straight lines on a flat
plane. His book “Sphaerica” dealt with the geometry of the sphere and its application in astronomical
measurements and calculations, and introduced the concept of spherical triangle (a figure formed of three
great circle arcs, which he named "trilaterals").

In the 3rd Century CE, Diophantus of Alexandria was the first to recognize fractions as numbers, and is
considered an early innovator in the
field of what would later become
known as algebra. He applied
himself to some quite complex
algebraic problems, including what
is now known as Diophantine
Analysis, which deals with finding
integer solutions to kinds of
problems that lead to equations in
several unknowns (Diophantine
equations). Diophantus’
“Arithmetica”, a collection of
problems giving numerical solutions
of both determinate and
indeterminate equations, was the
most prominent work on algebra in
all Greek mathematics, and his
problems exercised the minds of
many of the world's best
mathematicians for much of the Conic sections of Apollonius
next two millennia.

But Alexandria was not the only

centre of learning in the Hellenistic Greek empire. Mention should also be made of Apollonius of Perga (a
city in modern-day southern Turkey) whose late 3rd Century BCE work on geometry (and, in particular, on
conics and conic sections) was very influential on later European mathematicians. It was Apollonius who
gave the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola the names by which we know them, and showed how
they could be derived from different sections through a cone.

Hipparchus, who was also from Hellenistic Anatolia and who live in the 2nd Century BCE, was perhaps
the greatest of all ancient astronomers. He revived the use of arithmetic techniques first developed by the
Chaldeans and Babylonians, and is usually credited with the beginnings of trigonometry. He calculated
(with remarkable accuracy for the time) the distance of the moon from the earth by measuring the
different parts of the moon visible at different locations and calculating the distance using the properties of
triangles. He went on to create the first table of chords (side lengths corresponding to different angles of a
triangle). By the time of the great Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century CE, however,
Greek mastery of numerical procedures had progressed to the point where Ptolemy was able to include in
his “Almagest” a table of trigonometric chords in a circle for steps of ¼° which (although expressed
sexagesimally in the Babylonian style) is accurate to about five decimal places.

By the middle of the 1st Century BCE and thereafter, however, the Romans had tightened their grip on
the old Greek empire. The Romans had no use for pure mathematics, only for its practical applications,
and the Christian regime that followed it even less so. The final blow to the Hellenistic mathematical
heritage at Alexandria might be seen in the figure of Hypatia, the first recorded female mathematician,
and a renowned teacher who had written some respected commentaries on Diophantus and Apollonius.
She was dragged to her death by a Christian mob in 415 CE.