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Euclid

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Euclid
Euclid
Euclid was a Greek mathematician and often known as the “Father of Geometry “.He was born around 300 B.C. He taught mathematics in Alexandria, Egypt, at the Alexandria library or "Museum", and that he wrote the most enduring mathematical work of all time, the Stoicheia or Elements, a thirteen volume work. The Elements or Stoicheia is divided into thirteen books. The books go over plane geometry, arithmetic and number theory, irrational numbers, and solid geometry. Euclid organized the known geometrical ideas, starting with simple definitions, axioms; formed statements called theorems, and set forth methods for logical proofs. He began with accepted mathematical truths, axioms and postulates, and demonstrated logically 467 propositions in plane and solid geometry. One of the proofs was for the theorem of Pythagoras or now known as Pythagorean Theorem, proving that the equation is always true for every right triangle. The Elements was the most widely used textbook of all time, has appeared in more than 1,000 editions since printing was invented, was still found in classrooms until the twentieth century, and is thought to have sold more copies than any book other than the Bible. Euclid used an approach called the "synthetic approach" to present his theorems. Using this method, one progresses in a series of logical steps from the known to the unknown. Euclid proved that it is impossible to find the "largest prime number," because if you take the largest known prime number, add 1 to the product of all the primes up to and including it; you will get another prime number. Euclid's proof for this theorem is generally accepted as one of the "classic" proofs because of its conciseness and clarity. Mathematicians since Euclid have attempted without success to find a pattern to the sequence of prime numbers. Axioms are statements that are accepted as true. Euclid believed that we can't be sure of any axioms without proof, so he devised logical steps to prove them.

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