The ancient Greeks made a huge contribution to the development of the exact sciences: mathematics, astronomy, physics. Other nations at that time also possessed a certain store of knowledge. But if the Egyptians and Babylonians were content with the already discovered and explored areas, then the Greeks went even further. They did not stop there and opened up new horizons in different areas of life.
Mathematics in Ancient Greece
This science is one of the oldest and most sought after. Of course, the Greeks contributed to the development of culture and geography, logic and economics. Their philosophical school was so developed that it still surprises contemporaries with statements and discoveries. But mathematics has a separate niche in this complex system of scientific knowledge.
Many advances in arithmetic are due to discussions that were so popular with the Greeks. People gathered in the square, argued, and thus came to the only right decision. “Truth is born in a dispute” - this dogma has come down to us since those times.
Any ancient Greek mathematician was respected and respected. Derived theorems and formulas, hard understood by ordinary people, lifted him to the top of the pedestal, in the ranks of other great minds. The development of mathematics as a science owes much to Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid and other personalities, whose works and discoveries form the basis of the modern course of algebra and geometry in schools and universities.
Pythagoras and his school
This is an ancient Greek mathematician, philosopher, politician, public and religious figure. He was born around 580 BC on the island of Samos, as a result of which he was popularly called Samos. According to legend, Pythagoras was a very handsome and handsome man. He was not tired of studying everything new and unknown, his education was truly elite. The young man studied not only in his homeland, but also in India, Egypt and Babylon.
Pythagoras, an ancient Greek mathematician, patronized the slave owners and the aristocracy. An idealist to the marrow of bones, in Croton he founded his own school, which was both a religious and political structure. A clear organization of everyday life, strict rules and canons are its main features. For example, community members could not own private property, adhered to a vegetarian diet and pledged not to reveal the teachings of their teacher to strangers.
When democracy reached Croton, Pythagoras and his followers fled to Metapont. But a popular uprising raged in this city. In one of the fights, a 90-year-old mathematician died. Together with him, his famous school ceased to exist.
Discovery of Pythagoras
It is known for sure that it was his authorship that describes the integers, their properties and proportions. He was also one of the first scientists who claimed that the Earth was round, that planets did not have such a trajectory of motion as stars. All these ideas form the basis of the famous heliocentric teachings of Copernicus. Since the whole life of the scientist was surrounded by mystery, not many interesting facts about his activities have survived to this day. Some doubt that it was he who proved the famous theorem. According to some reports, many other ancient peoples knew it long before the birth of a mathematician.
The ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician possessed many abilities, and not only in the field of exact sciences. His name and activity are shrouded in myths and legends, as well as mysticism. It was believed that Pythagoras controls spirits from the underworld, understands the language of animals, communicates with them, sets flight of birds in the direction he needs, knows how to predict the future. He was also credited with healing skills.
Archimedes: main works
This is one of the most prominent representatives of that era, a famous scientist, philosopher, mathematician and inventor. He was born in 287 BC in Syracuse. In this small town he lived almost his whole life, here he wrote his famous treatises and tested new mechanisms. His father was the court astronomer Phidias, so the training of Archimedes took place at the highest level. He had access to the best library of the time, in the reading rooms of which he spent more than one day.
Several mathematical works of the scientist have survived to this day. Conventionally, they can be divided into three main groups.
- Works devoted to volumes and areas of curvilinear bodies and figures. They contain many proven theorems.
- Geometric analysis of hydrostatic and static problems. This research is about the balance of figures, about the position of the body in water and so on.
- Other mathematical work. For example, calculus of grains of sand, mechanical proof of theorems.
Archimedes died during the capture of Syracuse by Roman troops. He was so keen on drawing a new geometric problem that he did not notice the warrior who came up from behind. The soldier killed the scientist, not knowing that the commander gave the order to save the life of the famous mathematician and philosopher.
Contribution of Archimedes to the development of exact sciences
Every child is familiar with this outstanding figure from school. Who is he, an
ancient Greek mathematician who exclaimed “Eureka”? The answer to this question is simple - this is Archimedes. According to legend, the king instructed him to find out whether his crown was made of pure gold or the jeweler cheated by diluting it with other metals. Thinking over this task, Archimedes lay down in a bathtub filled with water. And then a terrific discovery occurred to him: the amount of liquid that is poured over the edge of the bath is equal to the volume of water displaced by his body. Having made this conclusion, he shouted to all of us the well-known word "eureka". An ancient Greek mathematician with this exclamation jumped out of the bathhouse and ran home, in which his mother gave birth, in a hurry to write down her discovery.
In addition, two thousand years before the discovery of the integrals, Archimedes managed to calculate the area of the parabolic segment. He revealed to the world the number pi, proving that the ratio of the diameter of a circle to the length of its circumference is always the same for any such geometric figure. He created the so-called Archimedes screw - a prototype of modern propellers and ship propellers. Among his achievements are throwing and lifting machines. The secret to creating his "incendiary mirror", with the help of which enemy ships were destroyed, has not yet been revealed by modern researchers.
Euclid
Most of his time he worked on musical works, revealed the secrets of mechanics and physics, and studied astronomy. But he devoted part of his work to mathematics: he brought to mind several proofs and theorems. It is difficult to overestimate his contribution to the development of this science, since the work of Euclid became the basis for other scientists who lived many centuries later.
What is the name of the ancient Greek mathematician who wrote the famous mathematical collection "Beginnings", consisting of 15 books? Of course, Euclid. He managed to formulate the basic principles of geometry, proved important theorems: about the sum of the angles of a triangle and the Pythagorean theorem. His name is also associated with the doctrine of the construction of regular polyhedra, which every young mathematician admires in geometry lessons today. Euclid discovered the method of exhaustion. It was adopted by Newton and Leibniz, discovering the methods of calculus: integral and differential.
Thales
This ancient Greek mathematician was born around 625 BC. For a long time he lived in Egypt and closely communicated with the ruler of this country, King Amazis. Legend has it that he once astounded the Pharaoh by measuring the height of the pyramid only by the magnitude of its shadow.
Thales is considered the founder of Greek science, one of the seven sages who changed the foundations of knowledge. Historians are convinced that Thales was the first to prove the basic theorems of geometry. For example, that the angle inscribed in the semicircle is always straight, the diameter divides the circle into two identical parts, the isosceles triangle has equal angles at the base, all vertical angles are identical, and so on.
Thales derived a formula according to which the triangles will always be the same if they have the same face and the angles adjacent to it. He learned to determine the distance to ships sailing far away using conditional triangles. In addition, he made a couple of discoveries in astronomical science, determining the exact time of the solstices and equinoxes. He was also the first to accurately calculate the length of the year.
Eratosthenes
This is a fairly versatile figure. He was fond of space exploration, geographical discoveries, studied speech, linguistic turns and historical events. In the field of algebra and geometry, he is known to us as an ancient Greek mathematician who made a discovery in the system of primes. He created the "Sieve of Eratosthenes", an interesting method that is still studied in schools. Thanks to him, it is possible to filter out primes from the general series. The numbers were not crossed out, as they are today, but punctured in the general drawing. Hence the name - "sieve".
Eratosthenes was able to independently construct mesolabium - a device for solving, based on the laws of mechanics, the Delos problem of doubling a cube. He was the first to measure the Earth. Having calculated the length of a part of the earth’s meridian, he deduced the circumference of the planet - 39 thousand 960 kilometers. I made a mistake only on some insignificant 300 kilometers. Eratosthenes is really a prominent figure of that time, without his achievements, mathematics could not exist in its usual form.
Geron
This ancient Greek mathematician lived in the first century BC. The data are approximate, since there are very few accurate evidence about his life that has survived to this day. It is known that Heron was fond of the laws of physics, mechanics, appreciated the achievements of engineering science. He was the first to create automatic doors, a puppet theater, a sail turbine, an ancient "taximeter" - a device for measuring the road, an automatic machine and a self-loading crossbow.
A lot of his work was devoted to mathematics. He derived new geometric formulas, developed methods for calculating geometric figures. Heron created the famous formula named after him, with which you can calculate the area of the triangle, if you know the length of all its sides. After himself, he left many handwritten books in which not only his works were displayed, but also the studies of other scientists. And this is his greatest merit. Thanks to these records, today we know about Archimedes, Pythagoras and other famous mathematicians who became symbols of that era and glorified Ancient Greece throughout the ancient world.