Singing Euclid: the oral character of Greek geometry

Opinionated History of Mathematics

Greek geometry is written in a style adapted to oral teaching. Mathematicians memorised theorems the way bards memorised poems. Several oddities about how Euclid’s Elements is written can be explained this way. Transcript Greek geometry is oral geometry. Mathematicians memorised theorems the way bards memorised poems. Euclid’s Elements was almost like a song book or … Continue reading Singing Euclid: the oral character of Greek geometry