Mathematician:Nicomedes

Mathematician

Ancient Greek mathematician about whom almost nothing is known.

Creator of the curve now known as the Conchoid of Nicomedes, which he used for Doubling the Cube.

Nationality

Greek

History

• Born: c. 280 BC in Greece
• Died: c. 210 BC

Theorems and Topics

• Conchoid of Nicomedes

Definitions of concepts named for Nicomedes can be found here.

Publications

• On Conchoid Lines

Critical View

.. prided himself inordinately on his discovery of this curve, contrasting it with Eratosthenes's mechanism for finding any number of mean proportionals, to which he objected formally and at length on the ground that it was impracticable and entirely outside the spirit of geometry.

-- Eutocius of Ascalon

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Nicomedes": 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
• 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): $1 \cdotp 25992 \, 10498 \, 94873 \, 16476 \ldots$