Timeline related to Greek Science and Technology

Part 1

Griechische Wissenschaft Zeitlinie

1184 BC

writes the History of Geometry.

About 314 BC

The first reference to the pyroelectric effect by Theophrastus who noted that tourmaline becomes charged when heated.

About 300 BC

Eukleides, better known as Euclid, published his Elements, a reorganized compilation of geometrical proofs including new proofs and a much earlier essay on the foundations of arithmetic. Elements conclude with the construction of Plato's five regular solids. Euclidean space has no natural edge, and is thus infinite. In his Optica, he noted that light travels in straight lines and described the law of reflection.

About 300 BC
"Epicurus attempted to deal with the contradiction between atoms falling through the void in parallel paths at the same speed and the appearance of novel combinations, or matter, by supposing very slight, chance deviations, or 'clinamen,' in an atom's path. He saw this as analogous to the question of human freedom in a determined nature; i.e., there is no room for ethical considerations. Indeed, "Epicureans saw the development of the world as a random, one-way process" (Toulmin and Goodfield 1965:50).

Dicaiarch of Messina (350-290 BCE), Greek geographer introduces to the map making world the notion of latitude and longitude

About 290-260 BC
Aristarchus of Samos, in On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, used trigonometry to estimate the size of the Moon and its distance by the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse. Archimedes and others said that he maintained that the Moon revolved around the Earth and the Earth around the Sun which remained stationary like the stars.

288-287 BC
Death of Theophrastus

287 BC
Birth of Archimedes
(Αρχιμήδης ο Συρακούσιος)

285 BC 
Philetas of Cos - died from considering the Liar Paradox.

About 280 BC
writes Conics. He introduced probably first the terms 'parabola' and 'hyperbola,' curves formed when a plane intersects a conic section, and 'ellipse,' a closed curve formed when a plane intersects a cone.

About 225 BC
Archimedes treatise On Spirals probably also date of discovery of the Archimedes Screw

Around 212 BC
(Μενέλαος ο Αλεξανδρεύς) writes Sphaerica which deals with spherical triangles and their application to astronomy.

Between 127 and 141