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 Oenopides of Chios.

Not to be confused with his approximate contemporary Hippocrates of Cos, 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 Eudemus of Rhodes in his History of Geometry

Results named for Hippocrates of Chios can be found here.

Publications

• c. 430 BCE: 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.

-- Aristotle

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Hippocrates of Chios": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $1 \cdotp 25992 \, 10498 \, 94873 \, 16476 \ldots$
• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {B}.4$: The Lunes of Hippocrates
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $1 \cdotp 25992 \, 10498 \, 94873 \, 16476 \ldots$
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Hippocrates of Chios (fl. 440 bc)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Hippocrates of Chios (fl. 440 bc)