The Alexandrians

1
The Alexandrians

• After the death of Alexander the Great, the
  empire was divided into 4 parts..
• Ptolemy Soter, ruled in Egypt
• (Not to be confused with the Astronomer!)
• Founded the Museum, or Temple to the Muses.
• It contained the famous Library.. Departments of
  Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine and Literature.

2
The Four Main KingdomsFollowing the Death of
Alexander.
3
Alexandria

• Alexandria soon became the most important center
  of learning in the world.
• It endured until 400 A.D.
• The strict Platonic attitudes of the Athenian
  school were abandoned by the Alexandrians..
• .. experimental science flourished.

4
Euclid (330 - 275 B.C.)

• First Head of the Mathematics
• Department at the Museum.
• He was educated in Athens.
• His most famous work was
• the "Elements of Geometry".
• It consisted of 13 books dealing with the
  geometry of the circle, straight lines, plane
  figures, regular solids, the sphere and the
  theory of numbers.

5
Archimedes (287 - 212 B.C.)

• Born in Syracuse, educated in Alexandria.
• Determined the circumference
• and area of a circle using polygons.
• Obtained a more accurate value for ?.
• 3 10/70 gt ? gt 3 10/71
• Found area of an ellipse, the area cut off by a
  parabola and a chord, the volume and surface area
  of a cone and sphere.

6
Archimedes the Physicist

• He discovered the Archimedes
• principle The buoyancy of a body
• in a liquid is equal to the weight
• of liquid displaced.
• He used this principle to determine the density
  of a gold crown made for the King of Syracuse
  and proved it to be impure.

7
Archimedes.. the Engineer

• Discovered the principle of the lever,
• The mechanical advantage of systems of pulleys.
• The invention of the water pump.

8
Archimedes

• He was finally killed by Roman soldiers who
  found him on a beach studying drawings of circles
  in the sand.

Symbolic end of the Greek Civilisation and the
beginning of the Roman Empire.
Dont touch my circles.