Euclid of Alexandria

ancient Greek mathematician, the author of the first theoretical mathematical treatise to have come down to us. The biographical details of Euclid’s life are scanty. The only certain fact is that his scientific work was done in Alexandria in the third century B.C.

Euclid was the first mathematician of the Alexandrian school. His principal work, Elements, contains an account of planimetry, stereometry, and several problems of number theory (Euclid’s algorithm, for example). In this work he summarized the preceding developments of Greek mathematics and established the foundations for the further development of mathematics. Among his other mathematical works, the most noteworthy are On Divisions of Figures, extant in an Arabic translation; Conies (four books), the material of which was used in a work of the same title by Apollonius of Perga; and Porisms, the idea of which is contained in the Synagogue (Collection) of Pappus of Alexandria . Euclid is also the author of works on astronomy, optics, music, and other subjects. The extant works of Euclid were edited by J. L. Heiberg and H. Menge and collected in Euclidis opera omnia (vols. 1–9, 1883–1916), which contains the Greek original, Latin translations, and commentaries by later authors.