Hippocrates of Chios

Hippocrates of Chios was an ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer. He lived around the middle or in the second half of the 5th century BC

Life

About his life are no secure information. Undoubtedly, its origin is from the island of Chios. In anecdotes are told that he was taken on a sea voyage to his property, according to one version by deceit, after another by pirates. Aristotle claims that Hippocrates was the loss inflicted by unwise behavior itself; Although he was an able geometer, but otherwise have been simple. He is said to have lived in Athens. It is sometimes assumed that he had been influenced by the Pythagoreans; in astronomy, this hypothesis can be based on an indication of Aristotle, who specifically refers to the comet theory.

Work

Hippocrates is said to have written the first textbook of mathematics. It is lost; otherwise nothing remains of his works. Therefore, its performance can only be inferred indirectly from later literature. Among other things, it dealt with the problem of doubling the cube ( " Delos problem " ), which he brought closer to a solution by he shifted it into the planimetry. According to him, the lune of Hippocrates are named, certain enclosed by arcs surfaces whose quadrature succeeded. Based on the half-moon he tried to square the circle. Whether he died doing a fallacy or recognized the failure of the attempt, is unclear; Aristotle mentioned in the Sophistic refutations the name of Hippocrates in the context of a fallacy.

About the astronomical views of Hippocrates, Aristotle reported that he had " the comet " for a rarely visible planets held and the comet tail for an optical illusion, which was caused by vapors of the comet.

Swell

• Maria Timpanaro Cardini: Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti, Vol 2, Firenze 1962, pp. 28-73 [ Greek text with Italian translation]