#euclid elements

Image Courtesy: link: http://www.ask.com/history/did-euclid-live-9ccf573bfa02ef59 author: ask.com description: Where did Euclid live? C O N T E N T S: KEY TOPICS Although little is known about his early and personal life, he went on to contribute greatly in the field of mathematics and came to known as the “Father of Geometry?, Euclid is known to have taught mathematics in Ancient Egypt during…

Euclid's Elements (Ancient Greek: ΣτοιχεῖαStoicheia) is a mathematical and geometrictreatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematicianEuclid in Alexandria c. 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems and constructions), andmathematical proofs of the propositions. The thirteen books cover Euclidean geometry and the ancient Greek version of elementary number theory. The work also includes an algebraic system that has become known as geometric algebra, which is powerful enough to solve many algebraic problems,[1]including the problem of finding the square root.[2] With the exception of Autolycus'On the Moving Sphere, the Elements is one of the oldest extant Greek mathematical treatises[3] and it is the oldest extant axiomatic deductive treatment of mathematics. It has proven instrumental in the development of logicand modern science. The name Elements comes from the plural of 'element'. According to Proclus the term was used to describe a theorem that is all-pervading and helps furnishing proofs of many other theorems. The word 'element' is in the Greek language the same as 'letter'. This suggests that theorems in the Elements should be seen as standing in the same relation to geometry as letters to language. Later commentators give a slightly different meaning to the term 'element', emphasizing on how the propositions progress in small steps, and continue to build on previous propositions in a well-defined order.[4]

Euclid's Elements has been referred to as the most successful[5][6] and influential[7] textbook ever written. Being first set in type in Venice in 1482, it is one of the very earliest mathematical works to be printed after the invention of the printing press and was estimated by Carl Benjamin Boyer to be second only to the Bible in the number of editions published,[7] with the number reaching well over one thousand.[8] For centuries, when the quadrivium was included in the curriculum of all university students, knowledge of at least part of Euclid's Elements was required of all students. Not until the 20th century, by which time its content was universally taught through school books, did it cease to be considered something all educated people had read.