Ancient Greece: Notable Scientists and Mathematicians (and their Notable Works, Concepts, Contributions, and Biographical Information) | Set #2: Worse Set

626 BCE - 545 BCE - Thales of Miletus (All Facts)

• Greek philosopher and scientist, considered the first Greek philosopher and Western philosopher of all time

• Allegedly predicted the eclipse of the sun 25 years prior to its having occurred

• Taught geometry to his disciples, having drawn straight lines, points, triangles, and circles while discussing problems of measurement and relationship involving these diagrams

• Does not see a practical use for geometry, but rather a theoretical base of knowledge that will help in the understanding of the universe

• He rejected the mythological explanation for the creation of the world, saying it was born of a single material substance, water

610 BCE - 546 BCE - Anaximander of Miletus (All Facts)

• Greek philosopher and scientist

• Famous for having drawn the first map of the world, engraved on a tablet of stone

  • He saw the world as rounded, like a pillar, with the inhabited part on one side

  • An unusual feature of his world is that it is represented as being viewed from on high, as though by a bird or a god

• Suggested that the earthly cylinder lies at the center of a celestial sphere in a position of perfect equilibrium

• Theorized that humans were developed from animals, because animals can look after themselves very soon, while humans need to be nursed for a long period of time

• Pupil of Thales

570 BCE - 495 BCE - Pythagoras of Samos (All Facts)

• Greek mathematician in the Greek settlements of Southern Italy

• Central to his beliefs was the idea that numbers can explain the working of the universe

• Developed his namesake theorem: that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides

• Discovered that musical harmonies can be expressed mathematically

• Was vegetarian and opposed to the killing of any living creature

  • He and his followers carried out physical exercises like yoga

550 BCE - 476 BCE - Hectatetus of Miletus (All Facts)

• Geographer

• Improved the map of Anaximander, which he saw as a disc encircled by Oceanus

550 BCE - 476 BCE - Hecataeus: Periodos Ges / Journey Around the World (All Facts)

• Work in which the author catalogues the names of people and places, mainly around Mediterranean regions and observes the local flora and fauna as well as the differences in religious traditions

460 BCE - 370 BCE - Hippocrates of Kos (All Facts)

• Greek physician

• Considered the “Father of Medicine”

• Established medicine as a discipline in its own right set apart from philosophy and theurgy

• His contributions to the field of medicine include his

  • use of prognosis and clinical observation

  • the systematic categorization of diseases

  • humoral theory (now false)

• Developed his namesake code of medical ethics, which ended up being used by doctors throughout Greece

• Insisted that disease has natural causes and is not to be explained by divine intervention

• Transformed the approach to illness in the city-states of Greece

• Travelled widely in mainland Greece, having taught medical students to

  • Study their patients carefully

  • Record their symptoms dispassionately

  • Treat their patients sympathetically

460 BCE - 370 BCE - Hippocrates of Kos: Hippocratic Oath (All Facts)

• Code of medical ethics which states the following:

  • “I will use my power to help the sick, according to my ability and judgement, and not for their injury or any evil purpose… Whatever I see or hear in my attendance on the sick, which ought not to be divulged publicly, I will keep secret and tell nobody…”

460 BCE - 370 BCE - Hippocrates of Kos: On the Sacred Disease (All Facts)

• Rejects the belief that epilepsy was caused by the gods

• The author states that calling diseases sacred is a cover for ignorance

390 BCE - 340 BCE - Eudoxus of Cnidus (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek astronomer, geographer, mathematician, doctor, and lawmaker

  • Student of Plato

• Assessed the length of a year as 365 and a quarter days long

• Developed a theory of concentric spheres which furthered the Greek understanding of the planetary movements

384 BCE - 322 BCE - Aristotle (All Facts)

• Greek philosopher and scientist

• Considered the “Father of (Western) Biology”

• Taught a new approach to science for his time, in which he believed an investigation of the forms which nature takes was proper science

384 BCE - 322 BCE - Aristotle: Historia Animalium (All Facts)

• Work which contains a detailed record of the behavior and habits of animals

• Considered the first work of the West in the field of biology

371 BCE - 287 BCE - Theophrastus (All Facts)

• Succeeded Aristotle as head of Aristotle’s school the “Lyceum”

• Emphasized the scientific orientation of research

• Did much work on plants and minerals

• Wrote a series of caricatures of stock types called “Characters”

Hepatology / Hepatologists (All Facts)

• Study of the meaning found in the livers of sacrificed animals, with fresh offal or clay models being used

Astrology / Astrologers (All Facts)

• (now defunct) Study of the skies and the heavenly bodies that move there and the interpretation of such activities

• The name literally means “the account of the stars”

• Their vocation involved studying the appearance and disappearance of the stars and planets, and whether this happens before or after sunset

Ephemerides (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the astrological tables developed by the Greeks in Mesopotamia during the Hellenistic Period

• Term that literally means “diary” or “calendar”

• They plotted the way in which celestial bodies seemed to move in fixed orbits

• They helped astrologers to base their opinions on the position of each star at any given moment of its course

• Each planet had its own importance

  • For example, Jupiter regulated the life of the king

300’s BCE - 200’s BCE - Euclid (All Facts)

• Considered the “Father of Geometry”

• Set out his principles of geometry in his work called “Elements” around 290 BCE

287 BCE - 212 BCE - Archimedes (All Facts)

• Greek Polymath of Syracuse

• Mathematician who used his expertise to construct formidable war machines to resist the Roman onslaught during the Siege of Syracuse

• Died in battle during the Siege of Syracuse

276 BCE - 198 BCE - Eratosthenes of Cyrene (All Facts)

• Greek polymath; he was a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist

• Famous for having figured out the measurement for the circumference of the Earth

  • He recorded the angle of a shadow cast by a stick at Alexandria on the day of the summer solstice, when there was no shadow at Aswan, about 500 miles to the south

  • Then he divided the figure, 7.5 degrees, into 360

190 BCE - 120 BCE - Hipparchus of Nicaea (All Facts)

• Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician

• Considered the founder of trigonometry

• Most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes

• Some consider him the greatest Greek astronomer of antiquity