tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-432431864571392297.post7464236231964396806..comments2023-05-02T00:31:56.086-07:00Comments on Teegee: Essays: "Fog" all my life!teegeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12719991678290299753noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-432431864571392297.post-31413300589850870602012-09-28T23:28:54.548-07:002012-09-28T23:28:54.548-07:00The article s.v. Geometry in the 1910 Britannica s...The article s.v. Geometry in the 1910 Britannica says that Egyptians studied the circle first, whence Milesians got it, and first Greek documented is Thales, from whom Pytyagoras at Samos and his disciples. It is a very good article, and I doubt if I'd find more in a recent survey (the 3rd ed. of the OCT, though by a good authority, is only about four columns long, and merely subsumes Geometry in Mathematics). Getting the formula for the area of the circle and proving it was useful and came first, but as soon as they had that, the Pythagorean were quick to see philosophy in that figure that has no angles to its boundary.teegeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12719991678290299753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-432431864571392297.post-50719379752051061302012-09-26T01:04:19.949-07:002012-09-26T01:04:19.949-07:00I am reading Abbott's Flatland in the annotate...I am reading Abbott's Flatland in the annotated edition of Ian Stewart who is at Warwick University. I think you would enjoy that a lot, since he puts all the ideas in the context of the Victorian intellectual world and, among other things, does suggest which ancient Greeks defined the circle philosophically. But on the Kindle, it is hard to locate just one reference, especially in this book. Anyhow, it is someone no later than Empedocles, and I should guess no later than the 6th century BC. As soon as they got beyond just surveying their fields, etc., having no math except straight-edge-and compass geometry, it is evident that they spent a lot of time looking at circles, because of the puzzle of how to measure its area. http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Squaring_the_circle.html This article cites all the very early approximations to pi. To say that god is a circle must have come fairly quickly. I mean, much later but still early, consider Vitruvian Man. Sir T.B. (I thought of him, naturally) would have loved everything that had been published, and that was quite a lot. Abbott book is a wonderful jeu d'esprit, too, so typical of his generation. I love it.teegeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12719991678290299753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-432431864571392297.post-77204957323423918382012-09-25T08:23:01.203-07:002012-09-25T08:23:01.203-07:00Abbott's 'Flatland' is a peculiar book...Abbott's 'Flatland' is a peculiar book. Geometry as moral lesson. Are you alluding to the saying 'God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere' in your last sentence. It's attributed to De Cusa, Empedocles, Sir T.B. and Voltaire . I like your ' anyone my age has coped with -isms' !Kevin Faulknerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15482886706239506749noreply@blogger.com