Greek, Roman, and Chinese Contributions to Mathematics

Greek, Roman, and Chinese Contributions to Mathematics

Prepared by:

Reymark Malit

Jeiel Milcah Sadsad

Vienna Sicat

Joseph Vincent Torre

Erica Jiel Yuzon

Submitted to:

Prof. Angela Carreon

I. Introduction

The Greeks' advancement in knowledge is a pivotal event in the history of humankind. Mankind's learning revolution can be traced back to Athens—a small city state of Ancient Greece that became the center classical learning. The Romans, who happened to fall in love with the Grecian culture, carried their own version of it in their conquest in the Mediterranean and Europe for which reason that classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Chinese were forging a culture of their own by the banks of Huangho and Yangtze River. It never crossed their mind that their civilization would be the oldest surviving civilization in the world.

These ancient cultures, even if they have survived up to now or not, have greatly altered the face of the earth, and therefore also, the face of mathematics that we know today.

II. Body

Thales of Miletus: Founder of Greek Geometry 585 BC

In Thales of Miletus, it was said that a number of geometric principles from Egypt were studied and developed by Thales and brought these teachings to Greece. Therefore, Thales was the one who first introduced Greek geometry. In addition, Thales method of teachings were simple inspection/observation and generality (Thales of Miletus, n.d.).

Thales was a teacher of Anaximander and a tutor of Pythagoras according to Thales of Miletus. He was an engineer who happens to be a mathematician, scientist and Greek philosopher. Nevertheless, no writings regarding his teachings survived. So, the certainty of his mathematical discoveries was hard to determine (Thales of Miletus, n.d.).

Measuring the pyramids height and finding the ships distance were some of the credits of Thales. Based on the Foundations of Greek Geometry , Thales was able to measure a pyramid using the length its shadow at a certain time wherein the pyramid's height is equal to the its shadow's length (Foundations of Greek Geometry, n.d.).

In Thales of Miletus, Thales was also able to find out the distance of a ship at sea. Heath suggested a method of Thales in calculating the distance. This method was "to have an instrument consisting of two sticks nailed into a cross