Hero of alexandria biography sample

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Hero of alexandria biography sample: Born and lived around

Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. Aeolipile Heron's fountain Heron's formula Vending machine. Mathematics Physics Pneumatic and hydraulic engineering. Life and career [ edit ]. Inventions [ edit ]. Mathematics [ edit ]. Bibliography [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. References [ edit ].

Hero of alexandria biography sample: Hero of Alexandria was a figure

The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists. New York: Peter Bedrick Books. Hero of Alexandria lived c. AD 60, variously described as an Egyptian scientist and a Greek engineer, was the greatest experimentalist of antiquity. It allowed surveyors to calculate angles and heights with great precision. The text also described the odometerused for calculating distances via the rotation of a wheel of known circumference.

For each revolution, a pin on the axle engage a tooth cogwheelthus making one complete revolution per mile. This engages another gear with holes along the circumferencewhere pebbles calculi are located that drop one by one into a box. The number of miles travelled is given simply by counting the number of pebbles. It was nearly years later that Arabic scholar Alhacen expanded the principle to both reflection and refractionand the principle was later stated in this form by Pierre de Fermat in In AutomatopoietcaHero included his designs for automatic machinesmany of which were programmable computers using gears and knotted ropes.

It could be argued that they were the first robots using simple binary language. In Belopoiica On Engines of WarHero gave explanations and diagrams of various weapons of warincluding a crossbow known as the Gastraphetes and various other artillery engines. It has been suggested that Archimedes knew the formula over two centuries earlier, and since Metrica is a collection of the mathematical knowledge available in the ancient world, it is possible that the formula predates the reference given in that work.

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Hero of alexandria biography sample: In his treatises Hero of

Related Posts. Colonel Drake and the Dawn of the Oil Business. Karl Pearson and Mathematical Statistics. Pieter van Musschenbroek and the Leyden Jar. August Leopold Crelle and his Journal. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. March December However, most historians believed that both Columella and Heron were using an earlier source and claimed that the similarity did not prove any dependence.

We now know that those who believed that Heron lived around the time of Columella were in fact correct, for Neugebauer in discovered that Heron referred to a recent eclipse in one of his works which, from the information given by Heron, he was able to identify with one which took place in Alexandria at From Heron's writings it is reasonable to deduce that he taught at the Museum in Alexandria.

His works look like lecture notes from courses he must have given there on mathematics, physics, pneumatics, and mechanics. Some are clearly textbooks while others are perhaps drafts of lecture notes not yet worked into final form for a student textbook. Pappus writes see for example [ 8 ] :- The mechanicians of Heron's school say that mechanics can be divided into a theoretical and a manual part; the theoretical part is composed of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and physics, the manual of work in metals, architecture, carpentering and painting and anything involving skill with the hands.

A large number of works by Heron have survived, although the authorship of some is disputed. We will discuss some of the disagreements in our list of Heron's works below. The works fall into several categories, technical works, mechanical works and mathematical works. The surviving works are: On the dioptra dealing with theodolites and surveying.

It contains a chapter on astronomy giving a method to find the distance between Alexandria and Rome using the difference between local times at which an eclipse of the moon is observed at each cities. The fact that Ptolemy does not appear to have known of this method led historians to mistakenly believe Heron lived after Ptolemy ; The pneumatica in two books studying mechanical devices worked by air, steam or water pressure.

It is described in more detail below; The automaton theatre describing a puppet theatre worked by strings, drums and weights; Belopoeica describing how to construct engines of war. It has some similarities with work by Philon and also work by Vitruvius who was a Roman architect and engineer who lived in the 1 st century BC; The cheirobalistra about catapults is thought to be part of a dictionary of catapults but was almost certainly not written by Heron; Mechanica in three books written for architects and described in more detail below; Metrica which gives methods of measurement.

We give more details below; Definitiones contains definitions of geometrical terms beginning with points, lines etc. In [ 15 ] Knorr argues convincingly that this work is in fact due to Diophantus ; Geometria seems to be a different version of the first chapter of the Metrica based entirely on heroes of alexandria biography sample. Although based on Heron's work it is not thought to be written by him; Stereometrica measures three-dimensional objects and is at least in part based on the second chapter of the Metrica again based on examples.

Again it is though to be based on Heron's work but greatly changed by many later editors; Mensurae measures a whole variety of different objects and is connected with parts of Stereometrica and Metrica although it must be mainly the work of a later author; Catoptrica deals with mirrors and is attributed by some historians to Ptolemy although most now seem to believe that this is a genuine work of Heron.