"The book includes introductions, terminology and biographical notes, bibliography, and an index and glossary" --from book jacket.

A sweeping cultural history of one of the most influential mathematical books ever written Euclid's Elements of Geometry is one of the fountainheads of mathematics—and of culture. Written around 300 BCE, it has traveled widely across the centuries, generating countless new ideas and inspiring such figures as Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein. Encounters with Euclid tells the story of this incomparable mathematical masterpiece, taking readers from its origins in the ancient world to its continuing influence today. In this lively and informative book, Benjamin Wardhaugh explains how Euclid’s text journeyed from antiquity to the Renaissance, introducing some of the many readers, copyists, and editors who left their mark on the Elements before handing it on. He shows how some read the book as a work of philosophy, while others viewed it as a practical guide to life. He examines the many different contexts in which Euclid's book and his geometry were put to use, from the Neoplatonic school at Athens and the artisans' studios of medieval Baghdad to the Jesuit mission in China and the workshops of Restoration London. Wardhaugh shows how the Elements inspired ideas in theology, art, and music, and how the book has acquired new relevance to the strange geometries of dark matter and curved space. Encounters with Euclid traces the life and afterlives of one of the most remarkable works of mathematics ever written, revealing its lasting role in the timeless search for order and reason in an unruly world.

This book offers a unique opportunity to understand the essence of one of the great thinkers of western civilization. A guided reading of Euclid's Elements leads to a critical discussion and rigorous modern treatment of Euclid's geometry and its more recent descendants, with complete proofs. Topics include the introduction of coordinates, the theory of area, history of the parallel postulate, the various non-Euclidean geometries, and the regular and semi-regular polyhedra.

The instructor's edition of Euclid's Elements With Exercises is intended as a guide for anyone teaching Euclid for the first time. Although it could be used by anyone, it was assembled and written with small schools or homeschooling groups in mind. In addition to containing the first six books in exactly the format of the student edition (also available on Amazon), the instructor's edition provides a concise overview of the course, including suggestions for conducting the class, a discussion of the organization of the material, brief comments on supplemental and memory work, and other details about which a new instructor might have questions. It also has notes for the teacher on each of the six books of the Elements, notes on selected exercises, and an appendix explaining the basics of formal reasoning, including an explanation of the converse and contrapositive of a statement and the concept of an indirect proof, which occurs early in Book I. The primary difference between this work and Euclid's Elements as it is usually presented (aside from the fact that there are some exercises), is that, while all of Books I - VI are included in the book, some propositions are omitted in the main body of the text (all omitted propositions are in Appendix A). This was done in order to be able to finish in two semesters all the plane geometry that would normally be covered in a modern geometry class. It should be noted, of course, that the flow of logic of the propositions is never interrupted. This book was not designed for the purist. Although it is pure Euclid and contains all of the first six books, it may offend the sensibilities of some who love Euclid (as the assembler/author does) to fail to place Book II in the expected flow of the main body of the text. For anyone not under a time constraint, or anyone moving quickly through the text, the author strongly recommends the inclusion of Book II in the course flow.

This classic text explores the geometry of the triangle and the circle, concentrating on extensions of Euclidean theory, and examining in detail many relatively recent theorems. 1929 edition.