Apollonius of Perga
Author of Conics (Books 1-3)
About the Author
Pergaetus Apollonius was one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. Commonly called "the great geometer," he was educated at Alexandria, Egypt, under the successors of Euclid. Apollonius presented the first systematic treatment of conic sections and coined the terms parabola, ellipse, and show more hyperbola. Seven of the eight books of his Conics survive, four in Greek and three in Arabic. Apollonius also made important contributions to astronomy by applying his knowledge of geometry to theories about planetary motions. Apollonois died about 220 B.C. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo © ÖNB/Wien
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Works by Apollonius of Perga
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Apollonius of Perga
- Birthdate
- 262 BC (ca)
- Date of death
- 190 BC (ca)
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Greece
- Map Location
- Greece
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Reviews
Even more than Euclid, an exploration of pure abstract geometrical beauty.
Certain proofs are still taught today, but much less so than for the other ancient works on mathematics. It would take months to work through each of the proofs and, being non-linear, most of them are much less intuitively obvious.
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- Works
- 25
- Members
- 199
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- #110,456
- Rating
- 3.3
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