Mathematician:Menelaus of Alexandria
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Mathematician
Greek mathematician and astronomer whose most important (and indeed, only surviving) work was in the field of spherical geometry.
Very little is known about him.
Nationality
Greek
History
- Born: c. 70 CE, possibly in Alexandria, Egypt
- Died: c. 130 or 140 CE
Theorems
Results named for Menelaus of Alexandria can be found here.
Publications
- c. 110: Sphaerica, which survives in an Arabic translation
Several other works of his are known about, but unfortunately appear not to have survived:
- On the Calculation of the Chords in a Circle
- On the Knowledge of the Weights and Distribution of Different Bodies
- The Book on the Triangle
- Elements of Geometry (translated into Arabic by Thabit ibn Qurra)
Sources
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Menelaus of Alexandria": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus' theorem
- 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (fl. ad 100)
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (fl. ad 100)
- 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $5$: Eternal Triangles: Astronomy
- 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (about ad 100)