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"Comparatively few of the propositions and proofs in the Elements are his [Euclids] own discoveries. In fact, the proof of the "Theorem of Pythagoras" is the only one directly ascribed to him."
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Florian Cajori"Professor Florian Cajori died August 14, 1934. In May of the following year I was invited by the University of California Press to edit this work. ...this is a revision of Mottes translation of the Principia. From many conversations with Professor Cajori, I know that he had long cherished the idea of revising Newtons immortal work by rendering certain parts into modern phraseology (e.g., to change the reading of "reciprocally in the subduplicate ratio of " to "inversely as the square root of") and to append historical and critical notes which would provide instruction to some readers and interest to all. This is his last work; one of the most fitting to crown a life devoted to investigation and to the history of the sciences in his chosen field."
Florian Cajori was a Swiss-American historian of mathematics, especially known for his comprehensive treatise about mathematical notation, A History of Mathematical Notations.
"Comparatively few of the propositions and proofs in the Elements are his [Euclids] own discoveries. In fact, the proof of the "Theorem of Pythagoras" is the only one directly ascribed to him."
"The Elements has been considered as offering models of scrupulously rigorous demonstrations. It is certainly true that in point of rigour it compares favourably with its modern rivals; but when examined in the light of strict mathematical logic, it has been pronounced by C.S. Peirce to be "riddled with fallacies." The results are correct only because the writers experience keeps him on his guard."
"As a mathematician Dean Cajori has achieved a name which very few in this world can equal, a name which is respected all over the globe. His text books and his writings have been published all over the world. We are proud of all the achievements of our "Caj", of course, but we are especially proud of what he has done for us here, and it is for this reason that we shall always hold him in our memory. As a friend and as an instructor he has been more to us than we can ever measure, and we shall always look back upon the days when we had "Caj"."
"Fermat died with the belief that he had found a long-sought-for law of prime numbers in the formula 2^{2^n} + 1 = a prime, but he admitted that he was unable to prove it rigorously. The law is not true, as was pointed out by Euler in the example 2^{2^5} + 1 = 4,294,967,297 = 6,700,417 times 641. The American lightning calculator Zerah Colburn, when a boy, readily found the factors but was unable to explain the method by which he made his marvellous mental computation."
"It is a remarkable fact in the history of geometry, that the Elements of Euclid, written two thousand years ago, are still regarded by many as the best introduction to the mathematical sciences."
"J. J. Sylvester was an enthusiastic supporter of reform [in the teaching of geometry]. The difference in attitude on this question between the two foremost British mathematicians, J. J. Sylvester, the algebraist, and Arthur Cayley, the algebraist and geometer, was grotesque. Sylvester wished to bury Euclid "deeper than eer plummet sounded" out of the schoolboys reach; Cayley, an ardent admirer of Euclid, desired the retention of Simsons Euclid. When reminded that this treatise was a mixture of Euclid and Simson, Cayley suggested striking out Simsons additions and keeping strictly to the original treatise."