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Euclid’s “Elements” in Science of the World
By: Andrew Schwartz

Advanced mathematics from Greece usually were a subject of interest of mathematics of Western cultures. Beginning from 600 B.C., mathematics has been one of the leading studies in ancient Greece and also as a rule in China, Babylon, and India. Achievements produced by Greeks developed into a term of contemporary civilization.

Euclid’s work “Elements” is one of those achievement. Euclid had created several works, no less than ten; nevertheless, “Elements” is measured as the most outstanding of contributions of this author. Speaking about Western Civilization, it has to be noted that “Elements” superseded all previous work in a short period of time; even more to that, there is no trace to the efforts which were made earlier. At the time when the work came into sight, simple citation and indication of Euclid’s work was enough to found credibility. Now there are more than 1,000 editions of “Elements” as the first time it appeared was in 1482. This writing was broadly studied for over two hundred years and it still serves as the fundamentals for learning of Geometry. It has become the second most frequently printed writing after the Bible.

Geometry is not the only subject of “Elements”, but it also contains elementary algebra and number theory. Work of Euclid is important for another reason that it is one of the primary creations of statement form of thinking. Analysis in “Elements” of Euclid is rooted on an assumption that with the purpose of establishing some report in a deductive method, an individual must, in the beginning, demonstrate that the statement is an essential and the single possible logical outcome of up to that time provided statements.

“Elements” includes a collection of definitions, constructions and theorems, axioms, and proofs of theorems rooted in postulation kind of thinking; this is the most ancient deductive management of mathematics. “Elements” is composed of 13 books where the first one covers the fundamental properties of geometry together with Pythagorean Theorem; the next book encloses material on algebra; book number third is devoted to properties and circles; the fourth book includes circumscribing and inscribing triangles; fifth deal with extents of magnitudes; sixth and seventh are concerned with use of proportions in geometry and basic number theory; eighth is devoted to number theory and extents in geometric sequences; books number nine and ten apply the outcomes of the previous books, while books 11 to 13 contend with spatial geometry.

Article Source: http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com

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