Elements is a mathematical treatise in thirteen books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, around 300 BCE. It collects and organises earlier geometry and number theory, building each result by logical proof from a small set of definitions, postulates and common notions. The work covers plane and solid geometry, proportion, prime numbers and irrational quantities. For about two thousand years it was the standard textbook of mathematics, copied and translated through Greek, Arabic and Latin traditions, and printed in many editions after the invention of the printing press. Its fifth postulate, on parallel lines, drew centuries of scrutiny and finally led to the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries in the nineteenth century.
Before and after
- from 305 BCE to 30 BCEPtolemaic dynasty
- from 305 BCE to 30 BCEPtolemaic Kingdom
- 304 BCEBirth of Ashoka
- from 4th century BCE to 5th centuryOrigins of Tanais
- 4th century BCEElements
- from 4th century BCE to 5th centuryXiongnu
- 4th century BCEPublication of Arthashastra
- from 4th century BCE to 4th centuryFounding of Library of Alexandria
- 4th century BCEOrigins of Paris
More in Science & technology
- 276 BCEBirth of Eratosthenes
- 63 BCEBirth of Strabo
- 100 CEBirth of Ptolemy
- September 129 CEBirth of Galen
- 360 CEBirth of Hypatia
- 476 CEBirth of Aryabhata
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.