Heron s formula biography of mahatma

The word ‘mathematics’ was coined by Pythagoras, who flourished around bc. It meant ‘a subject of instruction,’ and its first part, ‘math,’ comes from an old Indo-European root that is related to the English word ‘mind.’ The Pythagoreans grouped arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music together and for several centuries mathematics referred to only these four subjects. However, as we proceed it will become clear that the study of arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry began long before Pythagoras. In fact, a fair majority of the biggest breakthroughs in mathematics were made possible through the work of people other than those who have been credited in the history books.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, TX, USA

   Ravi P. Agarwal

2. GVP-Prof. V. Lakshmikantham Institute for Adv

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   Hero of Alexandria  was a Greco-Egyptian mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He is often considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.

   Hero published a well-recognized description of a steam-powered device called an aeolipile sometimes called a "Hero engine". Among his most famous inventions was a windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of wind harnessing on land. He is said to have been a follower of the atomists. In his work Mechanics, he described the pantographs. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius.

   In mathematics he is mostly remembered for Heron's formula, a way to calculate the area of a triangle using only the lengths of its sides.

   Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, but some of his works were preserved—mostly in manuscripts from the Eastern Roman Empire, and a smaller part in Latin

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A Brief History of Mathematics: A Promenade through the Civilizations of Our World [1 ed.] , , ,

Table of contents :
The book of time
Preface
Contents
About the Author
1 The Middle East, or the Beginning
The Origins of Mathematics
The Beginnings of Counting
Number Bases
Arabic Numerals
Shape and Geometry
Civilization on the Nile River
A Peculiar Terrain
The Rhind Papyrus
Egyptian Fractions
Between the Rivers
Babylonia
The Clay Tablets
Plimpton
Conclusion
2 The Sages of Ancient Greece
The Birth of Mathematicians
The Greek Arena
The First Proofs
Pythagoras
The Platonic Academy
Zeno&#;s Tortoise
Plato&#;s Academy
Aristotle
The Alexandrian School
Euclid&#;s Elements
Archimedes
Other Mathematicians
Conclusion
3 The kinesisk Middle Ages
Prologue
The Pre-Qin Era
Zhoubi Suanjing
Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art
From Circle Divisions to the Method of Four Unknowns
Liu Hui&#;s π Algorithm
The Sun Zi-Qin Jiushao Theorem
Other Mathematicians
C