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| Category: |  
Ancient Science
Ancient Literature |
| Name: |   Euclid - Math Series |
| Birth Year: | c. 300 BCE |
| Death Year: | na
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| Representative Image: |  |
| Biography, Lectures, and Research Links: |
Malaspina Great Books -
Euclid
(c. 300 BCE)
Biography - Math Series
Blog Euclid
Euclid was a Greek mathematician who lived in the 3rd century B.C.
His most famous work is the Elements, a book in which he deduces the properties of geometrical objects and integers from a set of axioms, thereby anticipating the axiomatic method of modern mathematics.
Although many of the results in the Elements originated with earlier mathematicians, one of Euclid's major accomplishments was to present them in a single logically coherent framework.
His fifth postulate, called the Parallel Postulate, states that for any line and any point not on that line, there exists a unique line passing through the point and never intersecting the line. It was long assumed to follow from the other axioms, but in the 19th century, Janos Bolyai (and probably Carl Friedrich Gauss before him) realized that its negation leads to consistent non-euclidean geometries, which were later developed by Lobatchevsky and Riemann. In addition to a treatment of geometry, Euclid's book also contains the beginnings of elementary number theory, such as the notion of divisibility, the greatest common divisor and the Euclidean algorithm to determine it, and the infinity of prime numbers. While the Elements was still used in the 20th century as a geometry text book and has been considered a fine example of the formally precise axiomatic method, Euclid's treatment does not hold up to modern standards and some logically necessary axioms are missing. The first correct axiomatic treatment of geometry was provided by Hilbert in 1899. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Euclid .]
 
The Great Books: Euclid
For this entry, please browse our Amazon list of titles about Euclid. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Euclid. Offer Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books.
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Books, Music, Art: | Elements, Books 1 and 2
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| Library Catalogs: | COPAC UK: Euclid
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| External Links: | Research Links - Literature: Euclid
Research Links - Science: Euclid
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| Records from Related Period and Category: | Ancient Literature
Ancient Science
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 About
this Database:
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This web page is part of a biographical database on Great Ideas. These are living ideas that have shaped, defined and directed world culture for over 2,500 years. By definition the Great Ideas are radical. As such they are sometimes misread, or distorted by popular simplifications. Understanding a Great Idea demands personal engagement. Our selection of Great Ideas is drawn from literature and philosophy, science, art, music, theatre, and cinema. We also include biographies of pivotal historical and religious figures, as well as contributions from women and other historically under-represented minorities. The result is an integrated multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary database built upon the framework of the always controversial Great Books Core List published in 1940 by the late Great Books Pioneer Mortimer Adler (1902-2001). Most of the works on that list are available in the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.
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