Mathematician:Hippocrates of Chios

Mathematician
Mathematician, geometer and astronomer.

The first to write a systematic textbook on geometry, Elements of Geometry, only a fragment of which survives.

Invented the technique of reduction, that is, transforming a mathematical problem into a more general, easily solvable one.

Demonstrated that the problem of Doubling the Cube is equivalent to finding the Cube Root of 2.

The first geometer to work out the area of a curvilinear figure (that is, the Lune of Hippocrates).

May have been a pupil of. Not to be confused with his approximate contemporary, the famous doctor.

Nationality
Greek

History

 * Born: c. 470 BCE, Chios (now Khios), Greece
 * Died: c. 410 BCE

Theorems and Definitions

 * Lune of Hippocrates, referenced by in his History of Geometry

Publications

 * Elements of Geometry

Critical View

 * It is well known that people brilliant in one particular field may be quite foolish in most other things. Thus Hippocrates, though skilled in geometry, was so stupid and spineless that he let a tax collector of Byzantium cheat him out of a fortune.