mathematics
mathematicsOur knowledge of the origins and early development of mathematics among the Greeks is negligible. In Mesopotamia an advanced mathematics had existed since at least the time of Hammurabi (c.1700 BC). Characteristic of this were problems in arithmetic and algebra, but many facts of elementary geometry were known, e.g. ‘Pythagoras' theorem’ and the mensuration formulae for a variety of plane and solid figures. It is probable that much of this knowledge reached the Greek world at some time, but the nature of our sources makes it difficult to say what came when, particularly as independent discovery can rarely be excluded. Greek doxographic tradition ascribed the invention of geometry to the Egyptians, whence it was made known to the Greeks in the 6th cent. bc by Thales in Ionia (W. Turkey) or Pythagoras in Magna Graecia (S. Italy). However, there was little to learn from Egypt beyond elementary mensuration formulae,...
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