Re: [HM] geometrical algebra in Euclid

Ken Saito (ksaito@nisiq.net)
Thu, 03 Sep 1998 23:42:15 +0900

Dear colleagues,

Just a comment (and it's my first word in this mailing list),

> kai to upo twn KZ,ZH ara ison esti tw apo ths ZQ

In a case like this, "KZ, ZH" is usually written as KZH,
(see, for example *Elements* XIII-10), and Apollonius often
(not always) omits the article "twn"; e.g.

kai estin ison to hypo EQD tw hypo PSO (*Conics* I-15, P.62,8-9).
(the rectangle contained by EQ, QD is also equal to the rectangle
contained by PS, SO)

I have the impression that the question of the type
"whether line segments that contain a rectangle are two lines or
one thing" was quite alien for mathematicians
like Archimedes and Apollonius

Yours,

Ken

-- 
Ken SAITO (ksaito@hs.cias.osakafu-u.ac.jp, ksaito@nisiq.net)
Department of Human Sciences
College of Integrated Arts and Sciences
Osaka Prefecture University
599-8531 Sakai (Osaka), Japan