Dositheos (mathematician)

Dositheos ( Greek : Δοσίθεος, 2nd half of the 3rd century BC) was a Greek mathematician and astronomer. He worked in the second half of the 3rd century BC. In Alexandria and is best known as Archimedes' correspondent . The Israeli mathematician Raviel Netz suspects based on the name that Dositheos was Jewish or of Jewish descent.

Dositheos was a pupil and friend of Konon of Samos and a student of geometry in Alexandria . Archimedes first sent his works from Syracuse to Konon in Alexandria, who presumably passed them on there. When Archimedes learned of Konon's death, he turned to Dositheos, whom he knew as a pupil of Konon. The introductions to several works are addressed to him: On the Quadrature of the Parabola , 2 books On Sphere and Cylinder , On Spirals and On Conoids and Spheroids . It can also be deduced from this that Dositheos, in turn, requested proof of certain theorems of Archimedes. Nothing is known about his own mathematical activity.

Dositheos made astronomical and weather observations in Alexandria and perhaps also on Kos . Such information about the appearance of fixed stars and typical weather signs was part of a type of almanac called a parapegma . Dositheo's observations are partly handed down in a calendar appendix to the Eisagoge of Geminos of Rhodes and in the writing Phaseis by Ptolemy and in the natural history of Pliny .

In addition, Censorinus reports that Dositheos wrote about Oktaeteris , an eight-year switching cycle in the calendar.

literature

Friedrich Hultsch : Dositheos 9 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 2, Stuttgart 1905, Col. 1607 f.
DR Dicks: Dositheus . In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 4 . New York 1971, p. 171 f .
Menso Folkerts : Dositheos 3rd In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 801.

Remarks

^ Reviel Netz: The works of Archimedes Vol. 1: The two books on the sphere and the cylinder. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2004, pp. 31 .
↑ Censorinus, The Birthday Book 18.5.

personal data
SURNAME	Dositheos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	3rd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	3rd century BC Chr.

[1] Reviel Netz: The works of Archimedes Vol. 1: The two books on the sphere and the cylinder. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge 2004, pp. 31 .

[2] Censorinus, The Birthday Book 18.5.