Biography on the life and achievements of Euclid

Euclid

Euclid, an ancient Greek mathematician, once said to a king, "There's no royal road to geometry." By that he meant that there's no shortcuts to geometry. You have to work hard and learn it the long way. In this research paper I will tell you what made him famous and what he did.

Very little is known about Euclid's life. One of the reasons is because he gets mixed up with Euclid of Megara, a Socratic philosopher. Another reason is because some of his work was destroyed in a fire. It is not sure where or when he was born, but it is believed he was born in Athens and lived from about 365 to 300 BC. He was educated there by the followers of Pluto.

Most of Euclid's work was on geometry. To be more specific, he studied pi, prime numbers, and the number theory. He even tried to find the proof that there is no end to prime numbers. King Ptolemy let him build a school of mathematical. After Euclid build the school of mathematics he taught there for twenty to thirty years. Surprisingly, it was much like one of these days.

One of Euclid's most famous books he wrote was called "Elements." It is the oldest Greek mathematical work to survive. It was translated, edited, and studied more than any other book, except the Bible. Over 1,000 editions have been published in various languages. The whole book was written in manuscript form and was first printed in 1482. It has 13 chapters, books or texts. It is called chapters in some versions and texts or books in other versions. Chapters one through six are on plane geometry. The next three chapters were on properties of integers. The 10th chapter is on incommensurable magnitudes. Finally, the last three chapters are on solid geometry. He devoted chapter two, five, seven, nine and ten, in whole or part, to the theory of numbers. The book "Elements" was the most influential Greek mathematical work ever. It was used as a standard high school textbook unit the last century. He wrote nine other great works, but they weren't as good as "Elements." Euclid also wrote about a dozen of other treaties, but half of them were lost. They were on astronomy, music, optics, mechanics, and conic sections. He was highly skilled at rewriting, summarizing, and systematizing other Greek's' work in clear terms. Some of his books were on just summarizing other people's work.

Euclid is often called the father of geometry, although that is not precise. He actually is the father of rigor, which means exactness. He is so famous that he has a city named after himself in northeastern Ohio. That doesn't mean everybody admired him. Three famous people rejected his fifth postulate (statement) and they were Albert Einstein, Nikolai Ivanovich Labachevski, and Georg Frederick Bernhart Riemann. The geometry he systematized was considered the only geometry until the time of Renaissance painters. A friend who studied with Euclid asked him "what should I get by learning these things." Euclid called to his slave and said; "give my friend three pence since he must gain out of what he learns." There is always a situation where you use what you learn. Another time Euclid was explaining "Elements" to a king when the king interrupted and asked if there was a shorter way to learn all of this. He replied "there is no royal way to geometry." By that he meant that there is no shorter way to learn geometry for king, because their always being treated special. People have to devote many hours, just like Euclid did, to be good at geometry. Only then they will earn the knowledge of geometry.

Euclid was an important Greek mathematician. The main reason he is remembered is because he wrote the book "Elements." If he would not have written this book he probably would not be remember as a great mathematision.