Greece - Greek Math

Hippocrates of Chios
Hippocrates of Chios, who lived about the same time as the medical Hippocrates, wrote the first known work on geometry.

Archimedes
Archimedes probably studied mathematics in Alexandria with the successors of Euclid. The name Archimedes is connected to a pumping device now known as a Archimedes Screw, which he may have seen in operation in Egypt.

Abacus - Base 10 and Greek Counting
If the ancient Greeks used letters for their numbers, were they able to and did they use a counting system like an abacus that relies on a base -- like the decimal system?

Finger Counting
Counting on one's fingers seems a natural way to compute numbers, but the Greeks and Romans didn't just count "on" their fingers. They counted with their fingers, and not to be quick and accurate with the finger symbols could be embarrassing.

Euclid
An Alexandrian mathematician and teacher, Euclid is most famous for his geometry with its logical deductions, axioms and postulates.

The Number 60 in Distance and Time
60 may be an arbitrary number but it approximates the numbers of days in the year and is easier to work with because it has so many factors than a decimal system.

Pythagoras Mathematics
Links to Pythagorean mathematics.

Basic Ideas in Greek Mathematics
Michael Fowler's lecture on Greek mathematics. Topics include Zeno's paradoxes, the tortoise and Achilles, square root of 2, pi, instants, intervals, and the beginning of calculus.

Roman Numeral Dates
Although custom dictates that we write MCMXCIX instead of MIM, the history of Roman numerals hasn't always been so strict. Site includes converter.

Greek Numbers
Andrew Wilson explains that in the Classical Age Greek counting used tallies and archaic letters to represent numbers. In the Hellenistic period, the alphabet with a few additions, replaced the old combination system.