Eudoxus of Cnidus

Eudoxus of Cnidus
Life:
There were many brilliant mathematicians from the time period of 500 BC until 300 BC,
including Pythagoras and Euclid. Another fundamental figure from that era was Greek
mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus. Eudoxus was born in Cnidus (present-day Turkey)
in approximately 408 BC and died in 355 BC at the age of 53. Eudoxus studied math
under Archytus in Tarentum, medicine under Philistium in Sicily, astronomy in Egypt,
and philosophy and rhetoric under Plato in Athens. After his many years of studying,
Eudoxus established his own school at Cyzicus, where had many pupils. In 365 BC
Eudoxus moved his school to Athens in order to work as a colleague of Plato. At the
age of 53 he died in Cnidos, highly honored as a lawgiver/legilator.
Contributions:
It was during this time that Eudoxus completed some of his best work and the reasoning
for why he is considered the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day. In the
field of astronomy, Eudoxus‘s best-known work was his planetary model. Luckily,
Eudoxus‘s theories had much more success in the field of mathematics. Many of his
proposition, theories, and proofs are common knowledge in the math world today. Some
of Eudoxus‘s best-known mathematical contributions include his proofs for the volume
of pyramids and cones, his Theory of Proportion, his propositions on magnitudes,
and his Method of Exhaustion.
 Proofs for the Volume of Pyramids and Cones
Eudoxus was able to use calculus and integrals in order to prove that the volume of a
pyramid is one-third the volume of the prism that has the same base and height as the
pyramid and that the volume of a cone is one-third the volume of the cylinder that has
the same base and height of the cone. In order to prove the volume of a pyramid,
Eudoxus considered the total volume of stacked prisms of decreasing size. Eventually,
Eudoxus argued that if the number of prisms was increased and the height of each
decreased until there were many, that it was possible to calculate the volume of a
pyramid using integrals.
 Theory of Proportion
The Theory of Proportion of Eudoxus is found as Definition 5 of Euclid, Book V
Magnitudes are said to be in the same ratio, the first to the second and the third to the
fourth, when, if any equimultiples whatever be taken of the first and third, and any
equimultiples whatever of the second and fourth, the former equimultiples alike exceed,
are alike equal to, or alike fall short of, the latter equimultiples respectively taken in
corresponding order.
In modern notation, this says that a : b and c : d are equal (where a, b, c, d are possibly

irrational) if for every possible pair of integers m, n
i. if ma < nb then mc < nd,
ii. if ma = nb then mc = nd,
iii. if ma > nb then mc > nd.
 Propositions on Magnitudes
Eudoxus is also probably largely responsible for the theory of irrational magnitudes of
the form a ± b (found in the Elements, Book X), based on his discovery that the ratios of
the side and diagonal of a regular pentagon inscribed in a circle to the diameter of the
circle do not fall into the classifications of Theaetetus of Athens (c. 417–369 bce).
According to Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276–194 bce), Eudoxus also contributed a
solution to the problem of doubling the cube—that is, the construction of a cube with
twice the volume of a given cube.
 Method of Exhaustion
Another remarkable contribution to mathematics made by Eudoxus was his early work
on integration using his method of exhaustion. This work developed directly out of his
work on the theory of proportion since he was now able to compare irrational numbers.
It was also based on earlier ideas of approximating the area of a circle
by Antiphon where Antiphon took inscribed regular polygons with increasing numbers of
sides. Eudoxus was able to make Antiphon's theory into a rigorous one, applying his
methods to give rigorous proofs of the theorems, first stated by Democritus, that
i. the volume of a pyramid is one-third the volume of the prism having the same
base and equal height; and
ii. the volume of a cone is one-third the volume of the cylinder having the same
base and height.
Various traces suggest that Eudoxus’s proof of the latter began by assuming that the
cone and cylinder are commensurable, before reducing the case of the cone and
cylinder being incommensurable to the commensurable case. Since the modern notion
of a real number is analogous to the ancient notion of ratio, this approach may be
compared with 19th-century definitions of the real numbers in terms of rational numbers.
Eudoxus also proved that the areas of circles are proportional to the squares of their
diameters.
The proofs of these results are attributed to Eudoxus by Archimedes in his work On the
sphere and cylinder and of course Archimedes went on to use Eudoxus's method of
exhaustion to prove a remarkable collection of theorems.
References:
http://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/masters/Greek/eudoxus.pdf
http://kobotis.net/math/MathematicalWorlds/Fall2014/131/Presentations/pdf/SondgerothE_p1.pd
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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eudoxus-of-Cnidus
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Eudoxus.html

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The Theory of Proportion of Eudoxus is found as Definition 5 of Euclid, Book V

In modern notation, this says that a : b and c : d are equal (where a, b, c, d are possibly

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