Mathematician:Pappus of Alexandria

Mathematician

One of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity.

Very little is known about him, except that he flourished at around 320 CE through dint of the eclipse of the sun in Alexandria in that year which he discussed in his commentary on Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest.

Noted for his multi-volume Collection, and for Pappus's Hexagon Theorem.

Nationality

Greek

History

• Born: c. 290 CE, Alexandria, Egypt
• Died: c. 350 CE

Theorems and Definitions

• Pappus's Hexagon Theorem

• Pappus-Guldinus Theorems (with Paul Guldin) (also known as Pappus Centroid Theorems and Guldinus Theorems)
  • First Pappus-Guldinus Theorem
  • Second Pappus-Guldinus Theorem

• Pythagoras's Theorem for Parallelograms
• Problem of Pappus

• Focus-Directrix Property of Conic Sections
• Pappus Chain
• Pappus Configuration
• Pappus Graph

Results named for Pappus of Alexandria can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Pappus of Alexandria can be found here.

Publications

• c. 320: Commentary on Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest.

• c. 340: Collection

• A commentary on Euclid's The Elements.

There are also various other works, now lost, which are mentioned elsewhere in the literature of the time.

Sources

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

• 1926: Sir Thomas L. Heath: Euclid: The Thirteen Books of The Elements: Volume 1 (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction: Chapter $\text{I}$. Euclid and the Traditions About Him
• 1926: Sir Thomas L. Heath: Euclid: The Thirteen Books of The Elements: Volume 1 (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction: Chapter $\text{III}$. Greek Commentators other than Proclus
• 1952: T. Ewan Faulkner: Projective Geometry (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $1$: Introduction: The Propositions of Incidence: $1.1$: Historical Note
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.8$: Pappus (fourth century A.D.)
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Pappus of Alexandria (c. ad 320)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Pappus of Alexandria (c. ad 320)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Pappus of Alexandria (about ad 320)