List of Greek inventions and discoveries

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

This article is a list of major inventions and scientific and mathematical discoveries by Greek people from antiquity through the present day.

Inventions

• Catapult - The historian Diodorus Siculus mentions the invention of a mechanical arrow-firing catapult (katapeltikon) by a Greek task force in 399 BC.* Campbell, Duncan (2003), Greek and Roman Artillery 399 BC – AD 363, Oxford: Osprey, p. 3, ISBN 1-84176-634-8
• Electric car - The Enfield 8000, a fully functional electric car was developed and produced between 1973 and 1977 by the Greek Neorion company in Ermoupolis, on the island of Syros, with production later moving to the UK where it was produced by Enfield Automotive, both owned by the Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The head developer was Constantine Adraktas.^[1]
• Pap smear - A test for cervical cancer developed by the Greek physician George Papanikolaou in 1923.^[2]

Discoveries

Mathematics

• Conic sections - First developed by Menaechmus in the 4th century BC, but the most significant contribution is by Apollonius of Perga in the 3rd century BC.^[3]
• Exhaustion, method of - Formalized by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the early 4th century BC, used by Archimedes to calculate the value of Pi and the area under a curve.^[4]
• Proof, mathematical - The mathematical proof was a product of Greek mathematics, evolving gradually to reach the method still used today in Euclid's Elements around 300 BC.^[5]
• Sieve of Eratosthenes - Developed by Eratosthenes in the 3rd century BC to calculate prime numbers.^[6]

Natural Sciences

• Circumference of the Earth - The circumference of the Earth was first calculated by Eratosthenes of Cyrene in 240 BC, with an error of 2% to 15% (depending on the definition of a stadion).^[7]
• Heliocentrism - The notion that the Earth and planets revolves around the Sun was first proposed by Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC.^[8]
• Spherical Earth - The concept of a spherical Earth first appears in the writings of the Pythagoreans around the 6th century BC.^[9]

See also

• Greek mathematics
• Greek astronomy
• List of Byzantine inventions

References

1. "UK Electric Car". Associated Press. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
2. Diamantis A, Magiorkinis E, Androutsos G., What's in a name? Evidence that Papanicolaou, not Babes, deserves credit for the Pap test., Diagn Cytopathol. 2010 Jul;38(7):473-6. doi:10.1002/dc.21226
3. Boyer, C.B.; Ute Merzbach (1991), A History of Mathematics (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley, p. 145, ISBN 0-471-09763-2
4. Boyer, C.B.; Ute Merzbach (1991), A History of Mathematics (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley, p. 92, ISBN 0-471-09763-2
5. Boyer, C.B.; Ute Merzbach (1991), A History of Mathematics (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley, p. 104, ISBN 0-471-09763-2
6. Boyer, C.B.; Ute Merzbach (1991), A History of Mathematics (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley, p. 161, ISBN 0-471-09763-2
7. Van Helden, Albert (1985). Measuring the Universe: Cosmic Dimensions from Aristarchus to Halley. University of Chicago Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-226-84882-5.
8. C. M. Linton (12 August 2004). From Eudoxus to Einstein: A History of Mathematical Astronomy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-1-139-45379-0.
9. Dicks, D.R. (1970). Early Greek Astronomy to Aristotle. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. pp. 72–198. ISBN 978-0-8014-0561-7.

External links