Did Euclid's circles have two kinds of radius?

DOI10.1006/HMAT.1999.2254MaRDI QIDQ1969915zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Chr. Marinus Taisbak, David Fowler

Publication date 2 November 2000

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1006/hmat.1999.2254

zbMATH Keywords

distanceworld of ideas

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Philosophy of mathematics (00A30) History of Greek and Roman mathematics (01A20)

Review text

The authors make the important point that Euclid's Elements, in contrast to his Data, deal with mathematics in the world of ideas, not in the material world of reality. Therefore, they (as well as Archimedes and Apollonius) use the instrumental dative of διάστημα ``distance as equivalent of what would be a real life opening of a compass for a circle to be drawn but the expression ``the (line) drawn from the center as term for the radius of a circle whose existence was already proved.

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Cited in

(2)

• The role of geometrical construction in Theodosius's \textit{Spherics}
• On the use of the term diastēma in ancient Greek constructions.

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