Euclid's Importance Throughout History

A)    Euclid is one of the most well-known mathematicians in the history of the world. Not much is known about his life, but know that his book, The Elements is a vital piece for the evolution of mathematics. He is studied today because is book is world-renowned and used by mathematicians around the world. They give Euclid credit combining many of these ideas and concepts. Euclid is often mistaken for Euclid of Megera, as many people thought that he was from here, but they were later corrected. Euclid of Megera was actually a philosopher who lived approximately 100 years before Euclid. He was also one of the first to study geometry. The Elements is divided into 13 different books, and the first six touch on plane geometry whereas books seven to nine look at number theory. Book 10 deals with irrational numbers and books 11-13 look into 3-dimensional geometry. Mathematicians say it is the greatest math book ever, and its concepts are timeless, one of the main reasons why it is still studied to this day and has been so important throughout history.

B)    I am not too familiar with this area of study, but with the way that many experts praise Euclid,  I think it is just to say that there is beauty. There are five postulates, three are related to construction, and connecting lines between two dots. The second and third mention straight lines and drawing circles. The fourth and fifth postulates is where I think the beauty lies, it is where the topics become more advanced. The fourth postulate states that all right angles are equal. I think that for this time, this was a very bold and out of the box claim to make. The fifth postulate is actually the most famous one. I believe that the beauty lies in the fact that he is praised for this postulate to this day and has been continuously throughout history. I think that an argument can also be made that the beauty could lie in the differences in the complexity between all of the different postulates, and how they are regarded in the progression of mathematics.

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  1. AmandaDecember 17, 2019 at 10:52 PM

    This is an excellent discussion about beauty and Euclid! Is it the fact that he has been praised, the postulates themselves, or the presentation of the all the postulates together?

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