Elements of Geometry was originally written by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid and was co-translated by Xu Guangqi, a famous Chinese scientist from the Ming Dynasty, and Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary. Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" consists of fifteen volumes, and Xu Guangqi and others translated the first six volumes.
During the translation process, in order to better express the meaning of the original book, Xu Guangqi created a set of mathematical terms, such as geometry, point, line, surface, plane, curve, right angle, obtuse angle, acute angle, diameter , quadrilateral, polygon, diagonal, etc. are still commonly used in the mathematical circles of Xiangguo.
Xu Guangqi translated this book and tried to use it to solve some problems in ancient Chinese mathematics. He adhered to the principle of "don't use it without testing" and pointed out that mathematics should be tested by practice. The translation and publication of this book played a great role in the development of Chinese mathematics.
Content Overview
The contents of the book "Elements of Geometry" *** thirteen chapters: Chapters 1 to 4 talk about the basic properties of straight sides and circles (including parallel lines , Pythagorean theorem, geometric construction and equivalent shapes, etc.), the first part of which gives the definition of the concepts used in the first part. The fifth article is the theory of proportionality (the relationship between two equal ratios), that is, the theory of proportionality about commensurable quantities (quantities whose ratios can be expressed as integer ratios), and at the same time extending it to incommensurable quantities.
The sixth chapter mainly talks about similar shapes. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 are about number theory, which talks about the properties of integers and the ratios of integers. They are the only places in the book where arithmetic is discussed. Chapter 10 is the classification of incommensurable quantities, which classifies irrational quantities. Chapters 11 to 13 are solid geometry and exhaustive methods.