Greece Part 3
Greece Chapters 6 and 7: Archimedes and Apollonius SOME ANCIENT GREEK DISTINCTIONS Arithmetic Versus Logistic • Arithmetic referred to what we now call number theory –the study of properties of whole numbers, divisibility, primality, and such characteristics as perfect, amicable, abundant, and so forth. This use of the word lives on in the term higher arithmetic. • Logistic referred to what we now call arithmetic, that is, computation with whole numbers. Number Versus Magnitude • Numbers are discrete, cannot be broken down indefinitely because you eventually came to a “1.” In this sense, any two numbers are commensurable because they could both be measured with a 1, if nothing bigger worked. • Magnitudes are continuous, and can be broken down indefinitely. You can always bisect a line segment, for example. Thus two magnitudes didn’t necessarily have to be commensurable (although of course they could be.) Analysis Versus Synthesis • Synthesis refers to putting parts together to obtain a whole. • It is also used to describe the process of reasoning from the general to the particular, as in putting together axioms and theorems to prove a particular proposition. • Proofs of the kind Euclid wrote are referred to as synthetic. Analysis Versus Synthesis • Analysis refers to taking things apart to see how they work, or so you can understand them. • It is also used to describe reasoning from the particular to the general, as in studying a particular problem to come up with a solution. • This is one general meaning of analysis: a way of solving problems, of finding the answers. Analysis Versus Synthesis • A second meaning for analysis is specific to logic and theorem proving: beginning with what you wish to prove, and reasoning from that point in hopes you can arrive at the hypotheses, and then reversing the logical steps.
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