Geminus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Geminus of Rhodes
)
Geminus
Γεμῖνος ὁ Ῥόδιος
NationalityGreek
Known forAstronomer and mathematician
Scientific career
Academic advisorsPosidonius

Geminus of Rhodes (Greek: Γεμῖνος ὁ Ῥόδιος), was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, who flourished in the 1st century BC. An astronomy work of his, the Introduction to the Phenomena, still survives; it was intended as an introductory astronomy book for students. He also wrote a work on mathematics, of which only fragments quoted by later authors survive.

Life

Nothing is known about the life of Geminus. It is not even certain that he was born in Rhodes, but references to mountains on Rhodes in his astronomical works suggests that he worked there. His dates are not known with any certainty either. A passage in his works referring to the Annus Vagus (Wandering Year) of the Egyptian calendar of 120 years before his own time, has been used to imply a date of c. 70 BC for the time of writing,[1] which would be consistent with the idea that he may have been a pupil of Posidonius, but a date as late as 50 AD has also been suggested.[2]

The crater Geminus on the Moon is named after him.[citation needed]

Astronomy

The only work of Geminus to survive is his Introduction to the Phenomena (

eclipses, star phases, terrestrial zones and geographical places, and the foolishness of making weather predictions by the stars.[3]

He also wrote a commentary on Posidonius' work On Meteorology. Fragments of this commentary are preserved by Simplicius in his commentary on Aristotle's Physics.

Mathematics

Geminus also wrote extensively on

Eutocius, and others. He divided mathematics into two parts: Mental (Greek: νοητά) and Observable (Greek: αἰσθητά), or in other words, Pure and Applied. In the first category he placed geometry and arithmetic (including number theory), and in the second category he placed mechanics, astronomy, optics, geodesy, canonics (musical harmony), and logistics. Long extracts of his work are also preserved by Al-Nayrizi in his commentary on Euclid's Elements
.

Notes

  1. ^ Dicks, D., Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York. (1970).[ISBN missing]
  2. ^ Neugebauer, O., A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. New York. (1975).[ISBN missing]
  3. ^ Evans, J., The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy, p. 91. Oxford University Press. (1998).[ISBN missing]
  4. ^ Heath, T., A Manual of Greek Mathematics, Dover Publications. (2003).

Bibliography

External links

  • Greek text of Manitius' Teubner edition of Εἰσαγωγή εἰς τὰ Φαινόμενα (Introduction to Phaenomena/Elements of Astronomy)
  • Technology Museum of Thessaloniki Entry
  • O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Geminus", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  • Geminus' section at wilbourhall.org with scans of Manitius' edition of Εἰσαγωγή εἰς τὰ Φαινόμενα including a German translation and an 1895 dissertation on Geminus by Carolus Tittel.