The principal defect of Egyptian arithmetic was the lack of a simple comprehensive symbolism, a defect which not even the Greeks were able to remove.

Ancient Greek mathematics

History of mathematics

In his study of the quadrature and duplication-problems, Hippocrates contributed much to the geometry of the circle.

Kepler followed Proclus and believed that 'the main goal of Euclid was to build a geometric theory of the so-called s.

Iamblichus states that Hippasus, a Pythagorean, perished in the sea, because he boasted that he first divulged "the sphere with the twelve pentagons.

The fame of the academy of Plato is to a large extent due to Eudoxus's pupils of the school at Cyzicus, among whom are Menaechmus, Dinostratus, Athenaeus, and Helicon.

When I speak of language, I do not only mean poetic or verbal language: I am thinking of the language of mathematics, of physics, et cetera. It is a fascinating topic. Language is an interface between us and the world. Beyond language there is nothing but pure mystical contemplation of the universe.

Mathematics takes us still further from what is human, into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the world, but every possible world, must conform.