Euclid and ‘The Elements’

Abstract

When a crime is committed and the culprit responsible for the crime is nabbed, the job of the investigators is not over. To convince the judge, they have to prove beyond doubt that it was the accused who committed the crime. Likewise, mathematical statements require proofs for their veracity to be established. Further, to make these statements precise we need to have a set of proper definitions. It was Euclid, who more than two thousand years ago, started this tradition when he bequeathed to the world his book entitled The Elements. This tradition has continued since then. Definitions, proofs besides axioms have become an inalienable part of mathematical lore. We owe all this to Euclid, one of the greatest pioneers of rigour and reasoning. In this article we discuss the work of Euclid.