Geometry defines the world around us, helping us make sense of everything from architecture to military science to fashion. Euclid's Elements is arguably the most influential book in the history of mathematics. Berlinski provides a concise homage to this elusive mathematician and his staggering achievements, and shows that, for centuries, scientists and thinkers have relied on Euclid's axiomatic system, a method of proof still taught in classrooms...

Important study focuses on the revival and assimilation of ancient Greek mathematics in the 13th–16th centuries, via Arabic science, and the 16th-century development of symbolic algebra. This brought about the crucial change in the concept of number that made possible modern science - in which the symbolic "form" of a mathematical statement is completely inseparable from its "content" of physical meaning. Includes a translation of Vieta's Introduction...

"Bringing together geometry and philosophy, this book undertakes a strikingly original study of the origins and significance of the Pythagorean theorem. Thales, whom Aristotle called the first philosopher and who was an older contemporary of Pythagoras, posited the principle of a unity from which all things come, and back into which they return upon dissolution. He held that all appearances are only alterations of this basic unity and there can be...

This is the definitive edition of one of the very greatest classics of all time - the full Euclid, not an abridgement. Utilizing the text established by Heilberg, Sir Thomas Heath encompasses almost 2500 years of mathematical and historical study upon Euclid. This unabridged republication of the original enlarged edition contains the complete English text of all 13 books of the Elements, plus a critical apparatus which analyzes each definition, postulate,...