Euclid biography of a great thinker clips

The pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy I, decided to learn geometry.

He had a textbook, called "The Elements,"

but he found this textbook difficult,

so he asked the author of the book

if there was an easier way to learn the subject.

Euclid replied, "There is no royal road to geometry."

We don't know if Ptolemy ever succeeded in understanding Euclid's book,

but we do know that for over 2000 years,

people used "The Elements" to learn geometry.

People often think "The Elements" was simply a geometry textbook.

In fact, the book teaches much more.

While its 13 chapters do teach plane and solid geometry,

they also teach number theory and an old form of algebra.

Euclid took the mathematical knowledge of his age,

organized it, and presented it in an orderly and logical way.

He started with a set of axioms,

and then used them to prove result after result.

He was methodical.

He was logical.

He set a high bar for clear and struct