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Pappus of Alexandria: Quick Facts

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Facts

Flourished c.320 -
Subjects Of Study Euclid • Ptolemy • Greece • Pappus’s projective theorem • mathematics

Photos

Map of the Greco-Roman world highlighting the birthplaces of notable ancient mathematicians, marked with the pi symbol and labeled with their names. Cities such as Athens, Alexandria, Syracuse, and Miletus are shown around the Mediterranean, with modern country boundaries outlined. An inset provides detail for the region of Greece and western Anatolia.
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Isaac Barrow, pencil drawing by David Loggan, 1676; in the National Portrait Gallery, London
Isaac Barrow
English mathematician
Euclid
Euclid
Greek mathematician
How did Ptolemy explain retrograde motion?
Ptolemy
Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, and geographer
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Eudoxus of Cnidus
Greek mathematician and astronomer
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Apollonius of Perga
Greek mathematician
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Heron of Alexandria
Greek mathematician
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Archytas of Tarentum
Greek mathematician
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Hippocrates of Chios
Greek mathematician
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Theaetetus
Greek mathematician
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Menaechmus
Greek mathematician
French philosopher Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
French philosopher and scientist
Fermat, portrait by Roland Lefèvre; in the Narbonne City Museums, France
Pierre de Fermat
French mathematician
Bernhard Riemann, lithograph after a portrait, artist unknown, 1863.
Bernhard Riemann
German mathematician
Paul Erdős
Paul Erdős
Hungarian mathematician
Engraved portrait of Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler in profile, wearing a dark coat and ruffled white shirt, from the 1740s.
Leonhard Euler
Swiss mathematician
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Omar Khayyam
Persian poet and astronomer
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Ibn al-Haytham
Arab astronomer and mathematician
James Gregory.
James Gregory
Scottish mathematician and astronomer
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Girard Desargues
French mathematician
Colin Maclaurin, engraving by S. Freeman; in the British Museum.
Colin Maclaurin
Scottish mathematician

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