Fiction_L Archives Hero of Alexandria Dates: 5/20/02,1:33 PM  through  5/20/02,2:36 PM  (3 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2009-current     2007-2008     1996-2006    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to May 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Asia Gross <agross@esls.lib.wi.us>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 1:33 PM

I have a patron who would like some books on Hero of Alexandria, who from
what I can tell worked in the field of geometry. The books are for her
children who range from 8 to 12 years old. I have found the text of his
own work, but she would like more books about him. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thank you

FROM: "Dillie, Thomas" <TDillie@mailserv.gcpl.lib.oh.us>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 2:26 PM

You may have a problem finding a full-length biography. As you already discovered, however, Hero (also known as Heron) of Alexandria has an entry or is discussed in a fair number of biographical and scientific dictionaries or encyclopedias including Britannica, the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, and several Gale sets including Notable Mathematicians, Encyclopedia of World Biography, and World of Invention. Notable Mathematicians includes the further reading list I've pasted in below.

Gow, James. A Short History of Greek Mathematics. New York: Chelsea Publishing Company, 1968, pp. 276-286.
Dunham, William. Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990, pp. 117-127.
Landels, J.G. Engineering in the Ancient World. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978, pp. 199-208.
Magill, Frank N., editor. The Great Scientists 6. Danbury, CT: Grolier Educational Corporation, 1989, pp. 49-53.
Van Der Waerden, L. Van. Science Awakening. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1963, pp. 276-278

For kids that age, the Magill volume might be the best first choice.

The Encyclopedia of World Biography includes this further reading note:
Some fragments of Heron's writings appear in English in Morris R.
Cohen and Israel E. Drabkin, A Source Book in Greek Science (1958).
Heron's scientific ideas are best presented in A. G. Drachman, The
Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity (1963), and
Robert S. Brumbaugh, Ancient Greek Gadgets and Mechanics (1966).
General books which discuss Heron and ancient science are Marshall
Clagett, Greek Science in Antiquity (1955), and L. Sprague de Camp,
The Ancient Engineers (1963).

Worldcat shows very few books in English, but there are two websites listed that might be of use.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/%7Ehistory/Mathematicians/Heron.html

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1038.htm
The latter is the transcript of a short episode of a radio program called Engines of Ingenuity.

Hope this is of some help.

Tom Dillie
Head Librarian
Cedarville Community Library
Greene County Public Library
P.O. Box 26
76 N. Main St.
Cedarville, OH 45314

"'Under consideration' means we've lost the file. 'Under active consideration' means we're trying to find it."

-----Original Message-----
From: Asia Gross [mailto:agross@esls.lib.wi.us]
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 2:41 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Hero of Alexandria

I have a patron who would like some books on Hero of Alexandria, who from
what I can tell worked in the field of geometry. The books are for her
children who range from 8 to 12 years old. I have found the text of his
own work, but she would like more books about him. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thank you

FROM: "M. Wms." <mmwm@adelphia.net>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 2:36 PM

He's also called "Heron," which might help your search.

There's a chapter devoted to Heron of Alexandria in HISTORICAL
CONNECTIONS IN MATHEMATICS
Date: 1993 Grade: 4 - 9 Cost: 18.95 ENC#: 005312
This resource introduces your students to Heron of Alexandria , a
Greek mathematician, physicist and engineer. They can also try out a
math problem using chocolate cake and areas of triangles.
http://quine.enc.org/resources/records/full/0,1240,005312,00.shtm

Hero of Alexandria is profiled in WHO'S WHO IN SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY By Bob Fowke, Hodder Children's Books, 2000.

Also discussed in AN IMAGINARY TALE (1998, Princeton Univ. Press),
by Paul J. Nahin
The author tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics'
most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i,
re-creating the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up
and the characters who tried to solve them.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691027951/

~ Molly Wms.
--
Molly Williams, Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library (Maine)
Library Weblog: http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm

Asia Gross wrote:

> I have a patron who would like some books on Hero of Alexandria, who from
> what I can tell worked in the field of geometry. The books are for her
> children who range from 8 to 12 years old. I have found the text of his
> own work, but she would like more books about him. Any help would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you
>
>

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