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EUDOXUS OF KNIDUS

EUDOXUS OF CNIDUS

Eudoxus was born in 408 BCE to an impoverished family in Knidus, Asia Minor. Because of his family’s low socioeconomic status, he would have had no chance at a successful life if it weren’t for his powerful mathematical skills. As a young adult, Eudoxus heard about Plato’s Academy and borrowed money to travel there. Many of the philosophers at the Academy ignored the young man, but Plato recognized his genius and supported him in his mathematical pursuits.

There was no remuneration for membership in the esteemed Academy, and Eudoxus had so little money that he could not afford to live with the other members in Athens. He was forced to rent a small room in the nearby city of Piraeus, where rents were low and basic food could be obtained inexpensively. He commuted daily to Athens to attend the discussions at the Academy. Eventually, after having proved several major theorems in geometry that no one had been able to tackle, Eudoxus earned the respect of the other philosophers. Thanks in part to the constant encouragement he received from Plato, Exodus surpassed all the mathematicians who came before him by devising the basic ideas of integral calculus 2,100 years prior to its formal and complete introduction by Newton and Leibniz.

Eudoxus was able to calculate volumes and areas using essentially the calculus ideas we use today. In fact, in modern mathematical analysis we use “Eudoxus sums” as part of the derivation of the integral. Unfortunately, the resulting envy of lesser mathematicians in the academy finally drove Eudoxus to leave Athens and settle in Cyzicus, where he learned and then practiced medicine. Exodus became very wealthy and was even elected a legislator.

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