A Short Account of the History of Mathematics

“There appeared in December 1921, just before this reprint was struck off, Sir T. L. Heath's work in 2 volumes on the History of Greek Mathematics. This may now be taken as the standard authority for this [first] period.”

“The subject-matter of this book... primarily it is intended to give a short and popular account of those leading facts in the history of mathematics which many who are unwilling, or have not the time, to study it systematically may yet desire to know.”

“The first edition was substantially a transcript of some lectures which I delivered in the year 1888 with the object of giving a sketch of the history, previous to the nineteenth century, that should be intelligible to any one acquainted with the elements of mathematics.”

“Doubtless an exaggerated view of the discoveries of those mathematicians who are mentioned may be caused by the non-allusion to minor writers who preceded and prepared the way for them, but in all historical sketches this is to some extent inevitable, and I have done my best to guard against it by interpolating remarks on the progress of the science at different times.”

“Generally I have not referred to the results obtained by practical astronomers and physicists unless there was some mathematical interest in them.”

“In quoting results I have commonly made use of modern notation; the reader must therefore recollect that, while the matter is the same as that of any writer to whom allusion is made, his proof is sometimes translated into a more convenient and familiar language.”

“Although the history of mathematics commences with that of the Ionian schools, there is no doubt that those Greeks who first paid attention to the subject were largely indebted to the previous investigations of the Egyptians and Phoenicians. Our knowledge of the mathematical attainments of those races is imperfect and partly conjectural...”

“Though all early races which have left records behind them knew something of numeration and mechanics, and though the majority were also acquainted with the elements of land-surveying, yet the rules which they possessed were in general founded only on the results of observation and experiment, and were neither deduced from nor did they form part of any science.”

“The fact... that various nations in the vicinity of Greece had reached a high state of civilisation does not justify us in assuming that they had studied mathematics.”

“Greek tradition uniformly assigned the special development of geometry to the Egyptians, and that of the science of numbers either to the Egyptians or to the Phoenicians.”

“The magnitude of the commercial transactions of Tyre and Sidon necessitated a considerable development of arithmetic, to which it is probable the name of science might be properly applied.”

“A Babylonian table of the numerical value of the squares of a series of consecutive integers has been found, and this would seem to indicate that properties of numbers were studied.”

“According to Strabo the Tyrians paid particular attention to the sciences of numbers, navigation, and astronomy; they had, we know, considerable commerce with their neighbours and kinsmen the Chaldaeans.”

“Whatever was the extent of their [the Chaldaeans] attainments in arithmetic, it is almost certain that the Phoenicians were equally proficient.”

“It seems probable that the early Greeks were largely indebted to the Phoenicians for their knowledge of practical arithmetic or the art of calculation, and perhaps also learnt from them a few properties of numbers. It may be worthy of note that Pythagoras was a Phoenician; and according to Herodotus, but this is more doubtful, Thales was also of that race.”

“The almost universal use of the abacus or swanpan rendered it easy for the ancients to add and subtract without any knowledge of theoretical arithmetic. These instruments... afford a concrete way of representing a number in the decimal scale, and enable the results of addition and subtraction to be obtained by a merely mechanical process.”

“Ahmes goes on to the solution of some simple numerical equations. For example, he says "heap, its seventh, its whole, it makes nineteen," by which he means that the object is to find a number such that the sum of it and one-seventh of it shall be together equal to 19; and he gives as the answer 16 + 1/2 + 1/8, which is correct.”

“The arithmetical part of the [Rhind] papyrus indicates that he had some idea of algebraic symbols. The unknown quantity is always represented by the symbol which means a heap; addition is sometimes represented by a pair of legs walking forwards, subtraction by a pair of legs walking backwards or by a flight of arrows; and equality...”

“He [Ahmes] concludes the work with some arithmetico-algebraical questions, two of which deal with arithmetical progressions and seem to indicate that he knew how to sum such series.”

“We have no reason to think that any special attention was paid to geometry by the Phoenicians, or other neighbours of the Egyptians. A small piece of evidence which tends to show that the Jews had not paid much attention to it is to be found in the mistake made in their sacred books, where it is stated that the circumference of a circle is three times its diameter: the Babylonians also reckoned that was equal to 3.”

“Ahmes then goes on to find the area of a circular field … and gives the result as (d - 1/9d), where d is the diameter of the circle: this is equivalent to taking 3.1604 as the value of π, the actual value being very approximately 3.1416.”

“Ahmes's book gives us much that idea of Egyptian mathematics which we should have gathered from statements about it by various Greek and Latin authors, who lived centuries later. Previous to its translation it was commonly thought that these statements exaggerated the acquirements of the Egyptians, and its discovery must increase the weight to be attached to the testimony of these authorities.”

“We know nothing of the applied mathematics (if there were any) of the Egyptians or Phoenicians. The astronomical attainments of the Egyptians and Chaldaeans were no doubt considerable, though they were chiefly the results of observation: the Phoenicians are said to have confined themselves to studying what was required for navigation.”

“Their [the ancient Chinese] arithmetic was decimal in notation, but their knowledge seems to have been confined to the art of calculation by means of the swan-pan.”

“Our acquaintance with the early attainments of the Chinese... serves to illustrate the fact that a nation may possess considerable skill in the applied arts while they are ignorant of the sciences on which those arts are founded.”

“Our knowledge of the mathematical attainments of those who preceded the Greeks is very limited; but... the early Greeks learned the use of the abacus for practical calculations, symbols for recording the results, and as much mathematics as is contained or implied in the Rhind papyrus. It is probable that this sums up their indebtedness...”

“Thales... must have had considerable reputation as a man of affairs and as a good engineer, since he was employed to construct an embankment so as to divert the river Halys in such a way as to permit of the construction of a ford.”