Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T07:28:00.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hero and Theon connected by matrices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

L. E. Ellis
L. E. Ellis*
Affiliation:
Marlborough College, Marlborough, Wiltshire
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a course on Greek Mathematics for our Classical Sixth some years ago, I noticed a connection between Theon’s and Hero’s sequences of rational approximations to √2 (the “side-and-diameter” numbers). A footnote in Heath [1] refers to a proof published in German in 1886, but I recently came across a generalisation which may be of some interest.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 58 , Issue 404 , June 1974 , pp. 135 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Heath, T. L., A history of Greek mathematics. Oxford University Press (1921).Google Scholar
2. Davenport, H., The higher arithmetic. Hutchinson (1952).Google Scholar
3. T. J. Fletcher, , Linear algebra through its applications. Van Nostrana Reinhold (1972).Google Scholar