Euclid's Elements

Rare card · No. 72392

The Elements (Ancient Greek: Στοιχεῖα Stoikheîa) is a mathematical treatise written c. 300 BC by the Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. The Elements is the oldest extant large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics. Drawing on the works of earlier mathematicians such as Hippocrates of Chios, Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Theaetetus, the Elements is a collection in 13 books of definitions, postulates, geometric constructions, and theorems with their proofs that covers plane and solid Euclidean geometry, elementary number theory, and incommensurability. These include the Pythagorean theorem, Thales' theorem, the Euclidean algorithm for greatest common divisors, Euclid's theorem that there are infinitely many prime numbers, and the construction of regular polygons and polyhedra. Often referred to as the most successful textbook ever written, the Elements has continued to be used for introductory geometry. It was translated into Arabic and Latin in the medieval period, where it exerted a great...

Read on Wikipedia · Image University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, CC BY-SA 4.0