"Hippocrates himself is an example of the concurrent study of the two departments. On the one hand, he was the first of the Greeks who is known to have compiled a book of Elements. This book, we may be sure, contained in particular the most important propositions about the circle included in Euclid, Book III. But a much more important proposition is attributed to Hippocrates; he is said to have been the first to prove that circles are to one another as the squares on their diameters (= Eucl. XII., 2) with the deduction that similar segments of circles are to one another as the squares on their bases. These propositions were used by him in his tract on the squaring of lunes, which was intended to lead up to the squaring of the circle. The latter problem is one which must have exercised practical geometers from time immemorial. Anaxagoras for instance is said to have worked at the problem while in prison."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Mathematicians from EnglandAcademics from the United KingdomNon-fiction authors from EnglandHistorians of scienceHistorians of mathematics
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Little_Heath
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Thomas Little Heath
48 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Thomas Little Heath →
Related Quotes
"The most probable view is that adopted by Nesselmann, that the works which we know under the three titles formed part…"
"It may be in some measure due to the defects of notation in his time that Diophantos will have in his solutions no nu…"
"Nesselmann observes that we can, as regards the form of exposition of algebraic operations and equations, distinguish…"
"An edition is... still wanted which shall, while in some places adhering... to the original text, at the same time be…"
"Any satisfactory reproduction of the Conics must fulfil certain essential conditions: (1) it should be Apollonius and…"
"There is perhaps no question that occupies, comparatively, a larger space in the history of Greek geometry than the p…"
"Theodorus of Cyrene and Theaetetus generalised the theory of irrationals, and we may safely conclude that a great par…"
"While then for a long time everyone was at a loss, Hippocrates of Chios was the first to observe that, if between two…"
"The discovery of Hippocrates amounted to the discovery of the fact that from the relation (1)\frac{a}{x} = \frac{x}{y…"
"Diophantos lived in a period when the Greek mathematicians of great original power had been succeeded by a number of …"