Theaetetus (c. 417 – c. 369 BC) Proved that there areexactly fiveregularconvexpolyhedra (it is emphasized that it was, in particular,proved that there doesnot exist any regular convex polyhedra other than these five). This fact led these five solids, now called thePlatonic solids, to play a prominent role in the philosophy ofPlato (and consequently, also influenced laterWestern Philosophy) who associated each of the fourclassical elements with a regular solid:earth with thecube,air with theoctahedron,water with theicosahedron, andfire with thetetrahedron (of the fifth Platonic solid, thedodecahedron, Plato obscurely remarked, "...the god used [it] for arranging the constellations on the whole heaven"). The last book (Book XIII) of theEuclid'sElements, which is probably derived from the work of Theaetetus, is devoted to constructing the Platonic solids and describing their properties;Andreas Speiser has advocated the view that the construction of the 5 regular solids is the chief goal of the deductive system canonized in theElements.[2]AstronomerJohannes Kepler proposed a model of theSolar System in which the five solids were set inside one another and separated by a series of inscribed and circumscribed spheres.
Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 – c. 230 BC) presented the first knownheliocentric model that placed theSun at the center of the known universe with the Earth revolving around it. Aristarchus identified the "central fire" with the Sun, and he put the other planets in their correct order of distance around the Sun.[4] InOn the Sizes and Distances, he calculates the sizes of theSun andMoon, as well as their distances from the Earth in terms of Earth's radius. However,Eratosthenes (c. 276 – c. 194/195 BC) was the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth.Posidonius (c. 135 – c. 51 BC) also measured the diameters and distances of the Sun and the Moon as well as the Earth's diameter; his measurement of the diameter of the Sun was more accurate than Aristarchus', differing from the modern value by about half.
Euclid (fl. 300 BC) is often referred to as the "founder ofgeometry"[5] or the "father of geometry" because of his incredibly influentialtreatise called theElements, which was the first, or at least one of the first, axiomatized deductive systems.
Apollonius of Perga (c. 240 – c. 190 BC) is known for his work onconic sections and his study of geometry in 3-dimensional space. He is considered one of the greatest ancient Greek mathematicians.
Hipparchus (c. 190 – c. 120 BC) is considered the founder oftrigonometry[9] and also solved several problems ofspherical trigonometry. He was the first whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of theSun andMoon survive. In his workOn Sizes and Distances, he measured the apparent diameters of the Sun and Moon and their distances from Earth. He is also reputed to have measured theEarth's precession.
The conquests ofAlexander the Great aroundc. 330 BC led to Greek culture being spread around much of the Mediterranean region, especially inAlexandria, Egypt. This is why the Hellenistic period of Greek mathematics is typically considered as beginning in the 4th century BC. During the Hellenistic period, many people living in those parts of theMediterranean region subject to Greek influence ended up adopting the Greek language and sometimes also Greek culture. Consequently, some of the Greek mathematicians from this period may not have been "ethnically Greek" with respect to the modernWestern notion ofethnicity, which is much more rigid than most other notions of ethnicity that existed in the Mediterranean region at the time.Ptolemy, for example, was said to have originated fromUpper Egypt, which is far South ofAlexandria, Egypt. Regardless, their contemporaries considered them Greek.
^Calinger, Ronald (1982).Classics of Mathematics. Oak Park, Illinois: Moore Publishing Company, Inc. p. 75.ISBN0-935610-13-8.
^Draper, John William (2007) [1874]. "History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science". In Joshi, S. T. (ed.).The Agnostic Reader. Prometheus. pp. 172–173.ISBN978-1-59102-533-7.
^Hans Niels Jahnke.A History of Analysis. American Mathematical Soc. p. 21.ISBN978-0-8218-9050-9.Archimedes was the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all times
Greece portal
