The progress made in understanding the world around us is a story of incremental discoveries. Some discoveries were made through physical exploration, others through the use of abstract theories to explain real world observations. Electric Book publishes a series of short titles that explore such sequences to tell stories of progress that combined keen observation, imagination, and analysis to provide the foundation of modern mathematics and the physical sciences.
The Origins by Geometry title collects some of the best content on the web and in print to tell the story of geometry’s evolution as a tool used by ancient astronomers. Electric Book enhances the original illustrations and graphics with its micro-referencing technology, connecting passages in explanatory narratives to graphic elements of an accompanying illustration.
Over 20 chapters are sewn together in a sequence describing how early propositions explored the relationships of a triangle’s angles, expanded into the study of angles formed by radii within a circle, eventually forming the early concepts of what we now call trigonometry. The story concludes with explanations of how, despite having limited observational data, these geometric concepts led early Greeks to do everything from estimating the distance to the moon to designing a good sundial.
We hope you enjoy exploring the chapters of Origins by Geometry, and don’t hesitate to use the Contact Us page with any comments.