SCIENCE & MATH IN ANCIENT GREECE

SCIENCE & MATH IN ANCIENT GREECE

science in Ancient Greece was based on logical thinking and mathematics. It was also based on technology and everyday life wanted to know more about the world, the heavens and themselves. studied the sky, sun, moon, and the planets, as well as their immediate environment

Biology Zoology Geology Mathematics THE SCIENCES

BIOLOGY Many important people contributed to Greek scientific thought and discoveries Biology, was studied by Hippocrates, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, and Galen observations, descriptions, and classifications of the various forms of plants and animal life, natural selection and zoology Greek biologists were interested in how living things began, how they developed, how they functioned, and where they were found

ZOOLOGY Zoology is the study of animals, involves studying the different species of animals, the environment in which they live, and their organs Aristotle made observations on the anatomy of octopi, cuttlefish, crustaceans, and many other marine invertebrates that were remarkably accurate These discoveries could have only been made by dissecting the animals. Through dissection, Greek zoologists studied the structures and functions of anatomies of various animals

GEOLOGY Earth science is the study of the earth and its origin and development, deals with the physical makeup and structure of the Earth Ancient Greek philosophers proposed many theories to account for the form and origin of the Earth Eratosthenes, a scientist of ancient Greece, made the first accurate measurement of the Earth's diameter

The ancient Greek philosophers were amazed by volcanoes and earthquakes. They made many attempts to explain them, but most of these attempts to explain these phenomena sound very strange to most people today. For example, Aristotle, speculated that earthquakes resulted from winds within the Earth caused by the Earth's own heat and heat from the sun. Volcanoes, he thought, marked the points at which these winds finally escaped from inside the Earth into the atmosphere.

MATHEMATICS Pythagoras Archimedes

PYTHAGORAS Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the development of mathematics yet we know relatively little about his mathematical achievements. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians, where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which certainly means that today Pythagoras is a mysterious figure.

PYTHAGORAS Pythagoras's father was Mnesarchus and, while his mother was Pythais and she was a native of Samos. Mnesarchus was a merchant who came from Tyre, and there is a story and that he brought corn to Samos at a time of famine and was granted citizenship of Samos as a mark of gratitude. As a child Pythagoras spent his early years in Samos but travelled widely with his father.

There were, among his teachers, three philosophers who were to influence Pythagoras while he was a young man: One of the most important was Pherekydes who many describe as the teacher of Pythagoras. Thales and his pupil Anaximander who both lived on Miletus. In about 535 BC Pythagoras went to Egypt. It is not difficult to relate many of Pythagoras's beliefs, ones he would later impose on the society that he set up in Italy, to the customs that he came across in Egypt.

For example the secrecy of the Egyptian priests, their refusal to eat beans, their refusal to wear even cloths made from animal skins, and their striving for purity were all customs that Pythagoras would later adopt. Porphyry says that Pythagoras learnt geometry from the Egyptians but it is likely that he was already acquainted with geometry, certainly after teachings from Thales and Anaximander.

Pythagoras founded a philosophical and religious school in Croton that had many followers. Pythagoras was the head of the society with an inner circle of followers known as mathematikoi. The mathematikoi lived permanently with the Society, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians.

They were taught by Pythagoras himself and obeyed strict rules. The beliefs that Pythagoras held were- (1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature, (2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification, (3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine, (4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance, and (5) that all brothers of the order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy.

Of Pythagoras's actual work nothing is known. His school practised secrecy and communalism making it hard to distinguish between the work of Pythagoras and that of his followers. Certainly his school made outstanding contributions to mathematics, and it is possible to be fairly certain about some of Pythagoras's mathematical contributions. Pythagoras was interested in the principles of mathematics, the concept of number, the concept of a triangle or other mathematical figure and the abstract idea of a proof.

Pythagoras believed that all relations could be reduced to number relations. As Aristotle wrote:- The Pythagorean... having been brought up in the study of mathematics, thought that things are numbers... and that the whole cosmos is a scale and a number.

Of course today we particularly remember Pythagoras for his famous geometry theorem. Although the theorem, now known as Pythagoras's theorem, was known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier he may have been the first to prove it.

ARCHIMEDES Archimedes was a famous mathematician whose theorems and philosophies became world known. He gained a reputation in his own time which few other mathematicians of this period achieved. He is considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.

Archimedes probably spent some time in Egypt early in his career, but he resided for most of his life in Syracuse, the principal city-state in Sicily, where he was on intimate terms with its king, Hieron II. Archimedes published his works in the form of correspondence with the principal mathematicians of his time, including the Alexandrian scholars Conon of Samos and Eratosthenes of Cyrene.

He played an important role in the defense of Syracuse against the siege laid by the Romans in 213 BC by constructing war machines so effective that they long delayed the capture of the city. But Syracuse was eventually captured by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus in the autumn of 212 or spring of 211 BC, and Archimedes was killed in the sack of the city.

DISCOVERIES & INVENTIONS Pi He was best known for his discovery of the relation between the surface and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing cylinder for his formulation of a hydrostatic principle (Archimedes' principle) Archimedes Principle states: an object immersed in a fluid experiences a buoyant force that is equal in magnitude to the force of gravity on the displaced fluid. He also invented things such as the hydraulic screw - for raising water from a lower to a higher level, catapult, the lever, the compound pulley and the burning mirror.

ARCHIMEDES SCREW

ARCHIMEDES MIRROR

THE PULLEY & THE SHIP Archimedes had stated in a letter to King Hieron that he could move any object regardless of its weight Hieron asked for a demonstration and Archimedes obliged by connecting a series of pulleys Archimedes was able to pull a large sailing ship by himself Hieron was impressed (this is how Archimedes got his job)

THE THREE DEATHS OF ARCHIMEDES

1ST ACCOUNT "Archimedes... was..., as fate would have it, intent upon working out some problem by a diagram, and having fixed his mind alike and his eyes upon the subject of his speculation, he never noticed the incursion of the Romans, nor that the city was taken. In this transport of study and contemplation, a soldier, unexpectedly coming up to him, commanded him to follow to Marcellus; which he declining to do before he had worked out his problem to a demonstration, the soldier, enraged, drew his sword and ran him through."

2ND ACCOUNT "A Roman soldier, running upon him with a drawn sword, offered to kill him; and that Archimedes, looking back, earnestly besought him to hold his hand a little while, that he might not leave what he was then at work upon inconclusive and imperfect; but the soldier, nothing moved by his entreaty, instantly killed him."

3RD ACCOUNT "As Archimedes was carrying to Marcellus mathematical instruments, dials, spheres, and angles, by which the magnitude of the sun might be measured to the sight, some soldiers seeing him, and thinking that he carried gold in a vessel, slew him."

ALL 3 ACCOUNTS COME FROM PLUTARCH. WHICH DO YOU BELIEVE? WHY?