what is euclid most famous for?

Answer 1

Euclid was a Greek mathematician best known for his treatise on geometry: The Elements . This influenced the development of Western mathematics for more than 2000 years.

Answer 2

Euclid wrote the oldest math textbook that we know about, called The Elements. The book was compiled over many years and had contributions from many mathematicians, but Euclid wrote it up around 300 BCE. It was so influential, that Euclid was virtually synonymous with mathematics until the 1800s.

Answer 3

He is most famous for writing Euclid's Elements over 2000 years ago. His logic presented in his treatises are beautiful and as Mr. Spock would say: "This is very logical."

Euclid base Geometry on only five postulates. Everything else he was able to prove. Today's Geometry books have many more postulates such as the SSS, ASA, AAS and SAS congruency theorems for triangle congruency. He proved these. Today's students are told to accept them as true without proof. What a shame as the dumbing down of America continues.

Answer 4

Here's an excerpt of Euclid biography that tells his sotry in a much more interesting manner than I have ever seen it told.

Answer 5

He is most famous for the axiomatic approach to geometry (in his most famous book: the Elements), which is the first example of the axiomatic description of a mathematical (and more generally, any scientific) principle.

He also studied numbers and proved the infinitude of the prime numbers by using reductio ad absurdum (proof by contradiction), hence he layed down the foundations of number theory, as well.

He is also famous for his work in mathematical logic, because he used the principle of deduction (which modern mathematics is based on) and he gave early examples of modern proof techniques (like the proof by contradiction mentioned above).

Answer 6

GEOMETRY. Euclid was the man.

Answer 7

Euclidian Geonetry. He is the god of our modern math system.

Answer 8

I Bulmer-Thomas, J E Murdoch, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Available on the Web]
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S Ito, The medieval Latin translation of the 'Data' of Euclid (Boston, Mass., 1980).
C V Jones, The influence of Aristotle in the foundation of Euclid's 'Elements' (Spanish), Mathesis. Mathesis 3 (4) (1987), 375-387 (1988).
G R Morrow (ed.), A commentary on the first book of Euclid's 'Elements' (Princeton, NJ, 1992).
I Mueller, Philosophy of mathematics and deductive structure in Euclid's 'Elements' (Cambridge, Mass.-London, 1981).
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