Math History Youtube Mini-Series: The History of Greek Mathematics

Mathematics has long been a unifying element across cultures around the globe. Beginning first as a tool used for counting and practical problems, Mathematics eventually came to be an intellectual interest producing theories and ideas that described the world. As one of the most pursued sciences, Math has built off itself creating new ideas on the backs of old ones. The study of Math history attempts to document and understand this path that Mathematics has taken from antiquity to now. Below you may watch this new mini-series on Math History which focuses on the breakthroughs made in the early years of Mathematics in Greece.


This series is meant to be a short introduction to Math History and as such covers only part of the Mathematical discoveries of one culture. Greek mathematicians as a whole did much to learn from and expand upon the knowledge established by the civilizations before it. Yet, within this series we have left out many Mathematicians that were instrumental in the development of Greek Mathematics in favor of focusing on three of the most well know Greek mathematicians: Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes. This series in chronological order covers the beginning of Mathematics in Greece and the Greek numeral system, Pythagoras and his followers, Euclid and the Elements,  and Archimedes and the Method of Exhaustion.

If you are interested in this series and would like to learn more about Math History as a field or the cultures we did not cover in this series, there is a short list at the end of this post with resources and texts to look into. We also have another blog post with a short three part guide on the History of Babylonian Mathematics that you may read through. The history of Mathematics is populated with numerous individuals and ideas who helped to shape modern Mathematics today, and they are just as important as the ones we choose to include in this mini-series. Egyptian, Babylonian, Chinese, Roman, Islamic and countless other cultures contributed to the overall growth of Mathematical knowledge.

We hope you enjoy this mini-series on the History of Greek Mathematics!

The Beginning of Greek Math and the Greek Numeral System

Pythagoras and his Followers

Euclid and the Elements

Archimedes and the Method of Exhaustion

If you would like to explore more about Math history we encourage you to read our three part series on the History of Babylonian Mathematics on our blog or check out these titles as they give both a broader context to the the development of Mathematics and a more detailed look at some of the theorems we covered here as well as ones we did not.

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