Researched
Deductive Proof (Greece)
Greek thinkers from Thales to Pythagoras demand that mathematical claims be proven from earlier ones, not just observed.
Open in the interactive tree →Tradition credits Thales and the Pythagoreans with the first proofs, and the discovery that a square's diagonal has no common measure with its side showed the power of pure reasoning. The habit of axioms and proof culminates in Euclid's Elements and is the core of mathematics today.
Prerequisites
- Number Systems & Place Value~3000-2000 BC
- Philosophy~585 BC
Unlocks
- Geometry (Euclid)~300 BCEuclid organised geometry as proofs from axioms, a practice begun by Thales and the Pythagoreans
Sources
More in Mathematics · Antiquity
- Number Systems & Place Value~3000-2000 BC
- Geometry (Euclid)~300 BC
- Trigonometry~150 BC
- Nine Chapters (China)~100 AD