Interesting facts about geometry
18 interesting facts about geometry
Geometry, as a systematic science, originated in ancient Greece.
One of the most prominent scientists in the field of geometry is Euclid. The laws and principles discovered by him are still the basis of this science.
More than 5 millennia ago, ancient Egyptians used geometric knowledge in the construction of the pyramids, as well as in the marking of land on the banks of the Nile (see interesting facts about the Nile).
Did you know that above the door to the academy where Plato taught his followers was the following inscription: «Let not he who does not know geometry enter here»?
The trapezium, one of the geometric shapes, comes from the ancient Greek «trapezium», which literally translates as — «table».
Among all geometric shapes with the same perimeter, the circle has the largest area.
By means of geometric formulas and not excluding the fact that our planet is a sphere, the ancient Greek scientist Eratosthenes calculated the length of its circumference. An interesting fact is that modern measurements have shown that the Greek performed all the calculations correctly, allowing only a small error.
In Lobachevsky’s geometry, the sum of all angles of a triangle is less than 180⁰.
Today, mathematicians know about other varieties of non-Euclidean geometries. They are not practiced in everyday life, but they help to solve a lot of questions in other exact sciences.
The ancient Greek word «cone» translates as — «pine cone».
The foundations of fractal geometry were laid by the genius Leonardo da Vinci (see interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci).
After Pythagoras deduced his theorem he and his disciples experienced such a shock that they decided as if the world was already known and all that was left was to explain it in numbers.
Chief among all his achievements, Archimedes considered the calculation of the volumes of a cone and a sphere inscribed in a cylinder. The volume of the cone is 1/3 of the volume of the cylinder, while the volume of the sphere is 2/3.
In Riemann geometry, the sum of the angles of a triangle is always greater than 180⁰.
An interesting fact is that Euclid independently proved 465 geometric theorems.
It turns out that Napoleon Bonaparte was a talented mathematician who wrote many scientific papers during his lifetime. Curiously enough, one of the geometric problems is named after him.
In geometry, the formula to measure the volume of a truncated pyramid appeared before the formula for the whole pyramid.
An asteroid numbered 376 is named after geometry.