Ed. note: Ah. . . the math papers. I think this, and the new baby drove the nail in the coffin of the monthly papers. Yanni was able write two before she abandoned the whole business.

Euclid: Inventor of Geometry

Geometry is the science of shapes, angles, and lines, In this report, I will write about what is known about the inventor of geometry, Euclid.

Euclid was born in Alexandria, Egypt in about 325 B.C. Even though Euclid invented geometry, he never called it that, he called it theories.

One of the reasons that not very much is known about Euclid is because there was another man named Euclid that was a philosopher, and was alive before Euclid was born. Because of him , some people got confused and wrote mixed up stories about both of the Euclids, when they were trying to write about one of them!

After getting his education at Plato’s Academy in Athens, Greece, Euclid became a teacher and scholar at the school in Alexandria, but it was called the Museum. While there, he wrote his most influential work, the Elements. Using his theories, Euclid taught many people about geometry, including the king at that time., whose name was Ptolemy. During one of the king’s lessons, he asked, “is there an easier way to learn geometry than using Elements?” Euclid answered him in one of his famous quotes: “There is no royal road to geometry.”

Euclid’s geometry book, Elements, has 13 books (or chapters).
Euclid based his work on 23 definitions, like point, line and surface, five principles and five “common notions” (today they are called axioms).

This is what is in Elements:

Books 1 through 4 deal with plane geometry, which as it sounds, does have to do with planes, books 5 through 10 introduce ratios and proportions, and books 11 through 13 deal with spatial geometry, which means having to do with the nature of space.

Even though nobody knows even where Euclid was born and where he died, we remember him because he taught us a valuable subject called geometry.