It is true that thanks to Ancient Philosophers we nowadays study certain disciplines. Nevertheless, why is Euclid Geometry’s father?
Figure 1. Euclid
Euclid was a mathematician who lived more than 2,000 years ago in Alexandria, ancient Egypt. Although not many details about his life are known, we do know that his work influenced the history of mathematics, especially in geometry.
His greatest contribution was to collect and organize all the geometric knowledge that existed in his time. He wrote Elements, which involves several books where he explains how geometric figures work. Instead of simply stating results, Euclid started from very simple ideas and from there built more complex reasoning progressively.
One of his most important developments was to establish a method based on definitions and demonstrations. From simple ideas, Euclid proved properties of figures such as triangles, squares, and circles. This way of working was very important because it allowed mathematics to become a discipline based on logic.
Many of the concepts studied today in geometry come directly from his work: types of angles, properties of triangles, calculation of areas, and relationships between lines and figures. That is why when people talk about “Euclidean geometry,” they are referring to the geometry that follows the ideas and methods he organized.
It is for that reason that this blog is going to be kind of a Euclid’s notebook and here we are going to work on this discipline.
I have created a video for you in case you prefer to organise your ideas visually! Thanks for watching!
Figure 2. Visual information
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario