The practical element in ancient exact sciences (Q583175)

At the beginning of his paper the author puts the following question: When ancient mathematical treatises lack expositions of numerical techniques, what purposes could ancient mathematical theories be expected to serve ? To answer this question the author proposes to explore a few areas - geometry (Euclid's Elements), mechanics (Archimedes' Plane Equilibria), Euclid's Optics, and spherics (Phaenomena of Euclid, Moving Sphere of Autolycus and Spherics of Theodosius) -- with the intent of discovering how the mathematical treatments imply positions on this issue. The survey will show the ways in which these ancient theoretical inquiries reflect practical activity in their fields. This will suggest that the authors may have intended their theorems not to predict, but to explain phenomena, and will lead us to consider what kind of explanations they were seeking.