Geometry

Geometry

History of Geometry
 Geometry
The word "geometry " comes from two
Greek words geo and metron meaning
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"earth measurement”.
Geometry was extremely important
to ancient societies and was used for
surveying, astronomy, navigation, and
building.
 Geometry, as we know it is actually known as
Euclidean geometry which was written well
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over 2000 years ago in Ancient Greece by

Euclid, Pythagoras, Thales, Plato and
Aristotle just to mention a few. The most
fascinating and accurate geometry text was
written by Euclid, and was called Elements.
Euclid's text has been used for over 2000 years.
 History
• Geometry was created out of necessity by the
ancient Egyptians.
Geometry

• Flooding of the Nile River would cause some

of the tenants of the Pharaoh’s land to lose crops,
so the tenants would refuse to pay “rent” for
the flooded land.
• The Egyptians then figured out how to measure
the area to adjust the
“rent” .

Picture 1: Flooding of the Nile.

 Egyptian Geometry
• Approximated area and volumes of different
shapes including circles, hemispheres, and
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cylinders.
• Challenged by finding the volume of a
truncated square pyramid.
 Babylonian geometry
• Geometry mostly used for measurement.
• Appeared to know the Pythagorean Theorem.
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• The sliding ladder problem

• Plimpton 322 tablet
• Had formulae to find areas and volumes of
various common shapes.
• Used “cut and paste” geometry where they
would rearrange squares and rectangles to find
the solutions to quadratic equations.
 History
• Thales of Miletus (624-547 BC)
Geometry

• Pythagoras of Samos (569-475 BC)

• Hippocrates of Chios (470-410 BC)
• Plato (427-347 BC)
• Euclid of Alexandria (325-265 BC)
• Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC)
 Thales of Miletus (624-547 BC)
• Simply being called a Greek
mathematician, does not make
one from Greece.
Geometry

• Thales (624-547 B.C.) was

said to have learned math from
the Egyptians and
Babylonians, and bring his
findings to the Grecian
Empire.
• Thales is credited with 5
theorems
 Thales’ Theorems
1.A circle is bisected by the diameter.
2.Angles in a triangle opposite two sides of equal
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length are equal (Isosceles Triangle Theorem).

3.Opposite angles formed by intersecting straight
lines are equal (Vertical angles are congruent).
4.The angle inscribed in a semicircle
5.is a right angle.
6.A triangle is determined if its base and the two
angles at the base are given (ASA Triangle
Congruence Theorem).
 Pythagoras (569-475 B.C.)
• Founder of the Pythagorean
Brotherhood.
Geometry

• Pythagoras is credited with the

Pythagorean Theorem learned in
middle school.
• It is quite possible that Pythagoras
did not create the Pythagorean
Theorem.
 Pythagorean Theorem

2 2 2
𝑎 +𝑏 =𝑐
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c
a

b
 Hippocrates (470-410 BC)
• He was the predecessor of
Euclid, and wrote an
“Elements” of Geometry.
Geometry

• He worked with the

“squaring of the circle”
problem.

• He worked on duplicating the cube which he

showed equivalent to constructing two mean
proportionals between a number and its double.
• He was also the first to show that the ratio of the
areas of two circles was equal to the ratio of the
squares of their radii.
 Squaring the Circle
• “For if a parallelogram can be found equal to
any rectilinear figure, it is worth inquiring
whether it is possible to prove that a
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rectilinear figure is equal to a circular area”.

• In essence, the problem is to find a square that
has the same area as a circle.
• Indirectly leads to an exploration of .

=
 Plato (427-347 BC)
• He founded "The Academy" in 387
BC which flourished until 529 AD.
Geometry

• He developed a theory of Forms, in

his book "Phaedo", which considers
mathematical objects as perfect
forms (such as a line having length
but no breadth).

• He emphasized the idea of 'proof' and insisted

on accurate definitions and clear hypotheses,
paving the way to Euclid, but he made no
major mathematical discoveries himself..
 Euclid (325-265 B.C.)
• He was the author of “The
Elements” which was a
gathering of the work of many
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of his predecessors such as

Thales, Pythagoras, and
Hippocrates .
• It is quite possible that Euclid
modeled his book after
Hippocrates.
• A good modern translation of this historic
work is
The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements
by Thomas Heath.
 The Five Postulates of Geometry
• In “The Elements” Euclid proposed 5 postulates
(things assumed true).
1.“Let it be postulated to draw a straight line from any
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point to any point, and”

2.“to produce a limited straight line in a straight line,”
3.“to describe a circle with any center and distance,”
4.“that all right angles are equal to each other.”
5.“That if a straight line falling on two straight lines
makes the interior angles on the same side less than
two right angles, the two straight lines, if produced
indefinitely, meet on that side on which are the angles
less than the two right angles.” (parallel postulate)
 Parallel Postulates
• Multiple parallel postulates exist, and are used to
define different types of geometry.
• Euclidean Parallel Postulate: “For every line and
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for every point P that does not lie on , there is

exactly one line such that P lies on and ||.”
• Elliptic Parallel Postulate: “For every line and for
every point P that does not lie on , there is no line
such that P lies on and ||.”
• Hyperbolic Parallel Postulate: “For every line
and for every point P that does not lie on , there are
at least two lines and such that P lies on and and
and are parallel to.”
 Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC)
• He greatest of Greek
mathematicians, and was also an
inventor of many mechanical
devices (including the screw, the
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pulley, and the lever). He

perfected integration using
“Eudoxus” method of exhaustion,
and found the areas and volumes
of many objects.
• A famous result of his is that the volume of a
sphere is two-thirds the volume of its
circumscribed cylinder, a picture of which was
inscribed on his tomb. He gave accurate
approximations to pi and square roots. BC.
 References
1.Artmann, B. (1999). Euclid - the creation of
mathematics. New York: Springer.
2.Berlinghoff, W. P., & Gouvêa, F. Q. (2004). Math
Geometry

through the ages: a gentle history for teachers and

others (Expanded ed.). Washington, DC:
Mathematical Association of America.
3.Heath., T. (n.d.). History of Geometry. Geometry
Algorithm Home. Retrieved April 16, 2012, from
http://softsurfer.com/history.htm
4.Heilbron, J. L. (1998). Geometry civilized: history,
culture, and technique. Oxford: Clarendon Press ;.
5.Venema, G. (2006). The foundations of geometry.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
 Group 1
Miralles, Victor A.
Cuba, John Almer
Chona, Raquel
Geometry
Geometry

Geometry
Casila, Lorelyn
Gayas, Shiela Mae
Panis, Arrol
Lorica, Lilian
Omambac, Holly Ika
Alvero, Jolina
Morante, Reynaldo
Locsin, Jessa Mae
Pore, Promencio