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The Heroic Age of Mathemeatics

The Heroic Age of Mathematics refers to 5th century BC Greece when early Greek mathematicians like Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, Hippias, Archytas, and Zeno made important contributions. Some of their contributions included attempting to square the circle using compass and straightedge, establishing theorems about circles, introducing the first curves beyond circles/lines, and developing paradoxes that helped formalize logic and mathematics. This period saw the development of deductive reasoning and recognition of concepts like incommensurability that changed how mathematics was approached.

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Angel Mae Catolico
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110 views17 pages

The Heroic Age of Mathemeatics

The Heroic Age of Mathematics refers to 5th century BC Greece when early Greek mathematicians like Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, Hippias, Archytas, and Zeno made important contributions. Some of their contributions included attempting to square the circle using compass and straightedge, establishing theorems about circles, introducing the first curves beyond circles/lines, and developing paradoxes that helped formalize logic and mathematics. This period saw the development of deductive reasoning and recognition of concepts like incommensurability that changed how mathematics was approached.

Uploaded by

Angel Mae Catolico
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Heroic Age

of Mathematics
Presentation by Angel Mae Catolico
Page 02

Introduction
The ‘Heroic Age of Mathematics’ was
during the 5th Century BC or the early
Greek Mathematics.

The Mathematicians of this age inherited


the works of Thales and Pythagoras, but
predate much of Plato, and all of Aristotle
and Euclid.
Page 03

Anaxagoras
499 BCE - 428 BCE
a Greek mathematician famed as the
first to introduce philosophy to the
Athens.
He was imprisoned around 450 BC for
claiming that the sun was not a god
but a red hot stone, and that the moon
was earth which reflected the sun’s
light.
He shared his teachings through his
scientific best-seller book - On Nature.
Page 04

Contributions:
Squaring of a Circle
Constructing a square with the same
area as the given circle using a
limited number of steps by compass
and straightedge.
Other known contributions
Cosmology, Two Levels of Metaphysics,
his Theory of Nous, Structure of Earth,
and Predominance Principle
Page 05

Pericles
Overview
He led Athens from 461 to 429 BCE.
He is a huge proponent of arts and
literature, and has led large
projects that included the
construction of the Parthenon and
other surviving constructs on
Acropolis.
Died to a widespread plague.
Page 06 Three Classical Problems of
Antiquity
01 Squaring the Circle 03 Trisecting the Angle
02 Doubling the Cube Given an arbitrary angle,
construct and angle one-third as
Referred to as the ‘Delian Problem’
The Athens were told by the oracle of
large using only straightedge
Apollo that the cure of the plague was to and compass.
double the cubicle altar of Apollo.
Page 07

Hippocrates
460 BCE - 375 BCE

a Greek physician who was regarded


as the ‘Father of Medicine’.
He left Athens in 430 BCE to be a
merchant.
Proclus’ writings claim Hippocrates
wrote Elements of Geometry a full
century before Euclid.
Page 08

Contributions:
Hippocrates established the
Quadrature of Lunes theorem:
LUNES - a figure bounded by “The areas of two circles are to each
two circular arcs of unequal other as the squares of their diameter.”
radii
Page 09

Hippias
443 BCE - 400 BCE

A Sophist, whom according to


Plato, made more money than his
fellow Sophists.
Socrates also described him as
handsome and learned, but
boastful and shallow.
Contributions:
Page 10

Trisectrix of Hippias
Hippias introduced the study
of the first curve beyond the
circle and the straight line.
Sometimes referred to as
the Quadratrix of Hippias
due to its help in doubling
the cube.
Page 11

Archytas
428 BCE - 347 BCE
He was an Ancient Greek
mathematician, music theorist,
statesman, and strategist from the
ancient city of Taras in Southern Italy.
He was a scientist and philosopher
affiliated with the Pythagorean school
and famous for being the reputed
founder of mathematical mechanics
and a friend of Plato
Page 12

Contributions:
Archytas was credited for establishing
the curriculum of mathematics:
Arithmetic (numbers at rest)
Geometry (magnitudes at rest)
Music (numbers in motion)
Astronomy (magnitudes in motion)

His original contribution is the 3-dimensional


solution to doubling the cube.
Page 13

Zeno
495 BCE - 430 BCE
A Greek philosopher whom Aristotle
called the inventor of dialectic.
He is known for his paradoxes that
contributed to the development of
logical and mathematical rigour and
that were insoluble until the
development of precise concepts of
continuity and infinity.
Contributions:
Page 14

Paradoxes
1. Achilles Paradox - designed to prove that the slower mover will
never passed by the swifter in arace.
2. Dichotomy Paradox - designed to prove that an object never
reaches an end.
3. Arrow Paradox - endeavors to proves that a moving object is
actually at rest.
4. Stadium Paradox - tries to prove that, of two objects travelling at the
same velocity, one will travel twice as far as the other at the same
time.
Page 15

Incommensurability
It means ‘to have no common measure’.
Such incommensurable numbers are now
represented by irrational numbers.

Paradoxes
The ideas of ‘continuity’ was very real and had
to be treated separately from ‘number’.
Page 16

Deductive Reasoning
Its origins are in ancient Greece but no one is
sure who started it.

Changes to Mathematics
‘Lines’ could no longer be added to ‘areas’.
‘Arithmetic Algebra’ was replaced by ‘Geometric
Algebra’.
Most arithmetic demonstrations to algebra questions
now had to be reestablished in terms of geometry.
Thank
You!
Presentation by Angel Mae Catolico

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