Pappus of Alexandria

Pappus of Alexandria is one of the most important mathematicians of ancient Greek time, known for his work Synagoge (“Collection”).

He was born at Alexandria in Egypt. Although very little is known about his life, the written records suggest he was a teacher.

His principal work is known as the Synagoge (c. 340). Comprising of at least eight volumes while the rest were lost, the collection covers a wide range of mathematical topics, including geometry, recreational mathematics, constructing a cube having twice the volume of a given cube, polygons and polyhedra.

In geometry, there are several theorems that are known by the generic name Pappus's Theorem, attributing them to Pappus of Alexandria. They include:

• Pappus's centroid theorem,
• the Pappus chain ,
• Pappus's harmonic theorem , and
• Pappus's hexagon theorem.

Reference

• Pappus of Alexandria Encyclopædia Britannica