Thymaridas of Paros

Thymaridas of Paros ( ancient Greek Θυμαρίδας Thymarídas ) was a Greek mathematician who was one of the early Pythagoreans . He lived in Paros , probably in the first half of the 4th century BC.

Little is known about him; he is only mentioned in the writings of Iamblichus of Chalkis . He was wealthy but fell into poverty for reasons unknown. This results from the fact that a Thestor from Poseidonia sailed to Paros in order to help him out with money raised for this purpose.

Thymaridas suggested calling prime numbers straight (εύθυγραμμικός) because they cannot be represented by a surface. He also gave solutions for systems of linear equations, especially the Thymaridas flower called:

${\displaystyle x+x_{1}=a_{1}}$

${\displaystyle x+x_{2}=a_{2}}$

${\displaystyle ....}$

${\displaystyle x+x_{n-1}=a_{n-1}}$

${\displaystyle x+x_{1}+\dotsb +x_{n-1}=S}$

with the solution:

${\displaystyle x={\frac {a_{1}+\dotsb +a_{n-1}-S}{n-2}}}$

and correspondingly by substituting for the remaining unknowns ${\displaystyle x_{i}}$

literature

• Constantinos Macris: Thymaridas / -ès de Paros ou de Tarente. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 6, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-271-08989-2 , pp. 1178–1187
• Thomas Little Heath: A History of Greek Mathematics. Vol. 1, 1921, pp. 69, 72, 94.
• George L. Huxley : Thymaridas . In: Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 13, 1976 ( digitized version )
• Martin Fell: Thymaridas. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/1, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01482-7 , column 520 f.

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Thymaridas of Paros. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .