Greek geometry (a) | Math History | NJ Wildberger

The ancient Greeks loved geometry and made great advances in this subject. Euclid's Elements was for 2000 years the main text in mathematics, giving a careful systematic treatment of both planar and three dimensional geometry, culminating in the five Platonic solids.
Apollonius made a thorough study of conics. Constructions played a key role, using straightedge and compass.

This is one of a series of lectures on the History of Mathematics by Assoc. Prof. N J Wildberger at UNSW.

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[acerovalderas]

You are doing a wonderful work for people who love math but are not experts in it. I find your lectures very rewarding. Thank you.

[njwildberger]

Perhaps you will find it interesting to watch a few other videos... who knows, you might get hooked. If you want to go right back to basics, check out the Elementary Mathematics Explained (K-6) series!

[madier]

Thank you professor for pointing out the way how the Greek regarded the concept of multiplication from a geometrical perspective. I look forward to follow all your lectures and recommend them to my mates. Once again a big thank you.

[njwildberger]

@robotadventures What exactly is a circle? is an interesting and historically important question. I would not go so far as to say circles are not real. There are different things we can write down on a piece of paper, and then point to, and say--that is a circle. One example: the equation x^2+y^2=1. That equation somehow represents a circle. There are other ways too. But the circle as a particular kind of continuous curve is more problematic.

[MrGiuse]

THANK YOU PROF WILDBERGER A BIG THANK YOU 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[njwildberger]

Euclid would not have approved your prescription to take a straight line and bend it into a circle. What does that exactly mean?

[thephilosopher]

First off I really appreciate these videos! I know this is 10yrs old but my only suggestion would be to start with describing the purpose of each book and brief over the fundamentals of each book so its easier to grasp. Here you danced around the book which would make it hard for beginners to grasp the concepts. That just my opinion.

[joebrinson]

Thanks for these videos. I am binge watching and they are great.

[njwildberger]

The very notion of a ``continuous curve'' is problematic. If you try to define a ``circle'' as a ``limit'' of polygons (let's suppose we agree that we understand these) then you will have to define ``limit'' here, and you will have to deal with uniqueness questions. How do we know if your def of circle as a ``limit'' agrees with your neighbour's def??