History

"Ask LOTS of questions!"

-Sarah 

Babylonians (2000-500 B.C.)

    Ancient clay tablets reveal that the Babylonians understood Pythagorean relationships.  One clay tablet reads:

"4 is the length and 5 the diagonal.  What is the breadth?  Its size is not known.  4 times 4 is 16.  5 times 5 is 25.  You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9.  What times what shall I take in order to get 9  3 times 3 is 9.  3 is the breadth."

Hindus (200-1200 A.D.)

    Hindus merely experimented with geometry and showed little interest overall.  They did provide a few inaccurate formulas, including the area of any quadrilateral being

where 's' is half the perimeter and a, b, c, and d are the sides.  This proves correct only for quads inscribed in circles.

Greeks (750-250 B.C.)

    Ancient Greeks practiced experimental geometry for centuries.  They studied the geometry of both Egyptians and the Babylonians.  They created the first formal math by arranging geometry with the laws of logic.  Euclid's book The Elements formed the basis for most of the geometry studied in schools.

Advances during the Renaissance (1300-1600 A.D.)

    Interest in geometric theory increased greatly during the Renaissance.  Minds such as those of Leonardo, Piero, Pacioli, and Dürer focused on finding the centers of gravity of quadrilaterals.  Leonardo, for example, gave incorrect and correct formulas for finding the center of gravity of an isosceles trapezoid.

Created by Sarah