Zenodorus (; c. 200 – c. 140 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician.

Life and work

Little is known about the life of Zenodorus, although he may have befriended Philonides and made two trips to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, as described in Philonides' biography. From the style of his writing, it is known that he lived not much later than

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

. He is mentioned in Diocles' ''On Burning Mirrors'':

And when Zenodorus the astronomer came down to Arcadia and was introduced to us, he asked us how to find a mirror surface such that when it is placed facing the sun the rays reflected from it meet a point and thus cause burning.

Zenodorus is known for authoring the treatise ''On isoperimetric figures'', now lost. Many of its propositions are known from

Theon of Alexandria Theon of Alexandria (; ; ) was a Greek scholar and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He edited and arranged Euclid's '' Elements'' and wrote commentaries on works by Euclid and Ptolemy. His daughter Hypatia also won fame as a mathema ...

's commentary on

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's ''Syntaxis''. In his ''On isoperimetric figures'', Zenodorus studies the areas and perimeters of different geometric figures. The most important propositions proved by him are that, # Of all regular polygons of equal perimeter, that is the greatest in area which has the most angles. # A circle is greater than any regular polygon of equal contour. # Of all polygons of the same number of sides and equal perimeter the equilateral and equiangular polygon is the greatest in area. # Of all solid figures the surfaces of which are equal, the sphere is the greatest in solid content..Kline (1972), p. 126

Notes

References

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Morris Kline Morris Kline (May 1, 1908 – June 10, 1992) was a professor of mathematics, a writer on the history, philosophy, and teaching of mathematics, and also a popularizer of mathematical subjects. Education and career Kline was born to a Jewish fami ...

, ''Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times'', Oxford University Press, 1972. * G. J. Toomer, ''Diocles On Burning Mirrors, Sources in the History of Mathematics and the Physical Sciences 1'' (New York, 1976).

External links

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History of the Isoperimetric Problem
a
Convergence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zenodorus Ancient Greek geometers 200s BC births 140s BC deaths 2nd-century BC Greek mathematicians