Glen Van Brummelen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691175997
- eISBN:
- 9781400844807
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691175997.003.0007
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter explains how to find the area of an angle or polyhedron. It begins with a discussion of how to determine the area of a spherical triangle or polygon. The formula for the area of a ...
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This chapter explains how to find the area of an angle or polyhedron. It begins with a discussion of how to determine the area of a spherical triangle or polygon. The formula for the area of a spherical triangle is named after Albert Girard, a French mathematician who developed a theorem on the areas of spherical triangles, found in his Invention nouvelle. The chapter goes on to consider Euler's polyhedral formula, named after the eighteenth-century mathematician Leonhard Euler, and the geometry of a regular polyhedron. Finally, it describes an approach to finding the proportion of the volume of the unit sphere that the various regular polyhedra occupy.Less
This chapter explains how to find the area of an angle or polyhedron. It begins with a discussion of how to determine the area of a spherical triangle or polygon. The formula for the area of a spherical triangle is named after Albert Girard, a French mathematician who developed a theorem on the areas of spherical triangles, found in his Invention nouvelle. The chapter goes on to consider Euler's polyhedral formula, named after the eighteenth-century mathematician Leonhard Euler, and the geometry of a regular polyhedron. Finally, it describes an approach to finding the proportion of the volume of the unit sphere that the various regular polyhedra occupy.
