What kind of geometry did the greeks discover

But most historians of mathematics tend to be skeptical to this claim. The reason for this is that Thales is generally agreed to have been the first Greek astronomer, and that such abilities would have been unlikely at this early stage of Greek astronomy. Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF. Skip to main content. This service is more advanced with JavaScript available.

Advertisement Hide. Authors Authors and affiliations Audun Holme. The deductive side of geometry was further developed during this time. We all think of the Pythagorean Theorem when we think of Pythagoras, however it is important to note that this theorem was used although it may not have been proved before his time. As an interesting side note, Pythagoras was regarded as a religious prophet by his contemporaries.

He preached the immortality of the soul and reincarnation, and he even organized a brotherhood of believers. This brotherhood had initiation rites, they were vegetarian, and they shared all property.

They did, however, differ from other religious groups in one major way. They believed that elevation of the soul and union with God was achieved through the study of music and mathematics. Hippocrates of Chios was one of these students at the Pythagorean school. He studied the problem of squaring a circle and squaring a lune. Although Plato did not make any major mathematical discoveries himself, he did emphasize the idea of proof.

He insisted on accuracy, which helped pave the way for Euclid. It is correct to say that almost every significant geometrical development can be traced back to three outstanding Greek geometers: Euclid, Archimedes, and Apollonis.

Euclid is the most widely read author in the history of mankind. Typically, the next mentioned Greek mathematician is regarded as the greatest Greek mathematician by geometryalgorithms. His name was Archimedes of Syracuse. Search form Search :. Reasoning Philosophy Ethics History. Psychology Biology Physics Medicine Anthropology.

Martyn Shuttleworth Don't miss these related articles:. Augustine 8. Euclid, illustrating geometry in "The School of Athens", by Raffaello Sanzio Public Domain Certainly, for measuring boundaries and for erecting buildings, humans need to have some inbuilt mechanism and instinct for judging distances, angles, and height.

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Add to my courses. Footer bottom Links. The Research Council of Norway. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon research and innovation programme under grant agreement No Written by GreekBoston. The Ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Indians studied and invented certain early geometric principles but the Greeks took what had been discovered and made crucial advancements that have shaped modern geometry today.

In fact, in Ancient Greece, studying geometry was considered the gold standard of their mathematical and scientific pursuits. We know that the Ancient Greeks used their mythological stories to help explain their world. Studying geometry was one of those pursuits that helped them to gain a clearer picture of how the world worked. Classical geometers like Thales, Pythagoras, and later on, Plato, talked about things like eternal forms and the axiomatic method and these principals are still in use today.