Mathematician:Menelaus of Alexandria

Mathematician

Greek mathematician and astronomer whose most important (and indeed, only surviving) work was in the field of spherical geometry.

Very little is known about him.

Nationality

Greek

History

• Born: c. 70 CE, possibly in Alexandria, Egypt
• Died: c. 130 or 140 CE

Theorems

• Menelaus' Theorem

Results named for Menelaus of Alexandria can be found here.

Publications

• c. 110: Sphaerica, which survives in an Arabic translation

Several other works of his are known about, but unfortunately appear not to have survived:

• On the Calculation of the Chords in a Circle
• On the Knowledge of the Weights and Distribution of Different Bodies
• The Book on the Triangle
• Elements of Geometry (translated into Arabic by Thabit ibn Qurra)

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Menelaus of Alexandria": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus' theorem
• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (fl. ad 100)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (fl. ad 100)
• 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $5$: Eternal Triangles: Astronomy
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Menelaus of Alexandria (about ad 100)