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Thales—our founder?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Colin R. Fletcher
Colin R. Fletcher*
Affiliation:
Department of Pure Mathematics, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
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Extract

The Greeks were the first real mathematicians. Littlewood expressed this thought in the following terms; they were not clever schoolboys or scholarship candidates, but Fellows of another College. The sentiment is universally accepted by mathematicians, no matter how clever we consider the ancient Egyptians, nor how under-rated the achievements of the Babylonians (nor indeed how inscrutable the works of the ancient Chinese). But if the Greeks were the first in the field, who was the first of the Greeks?

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 66 , Issue 438 , December 1982, pp. 266 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1982

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