for their importance in many areas, including a method of
studying mathematics that, in the words of a reviewer, “is
based on real understanding rather than on rote learning,”
being the first to show QUADRATIC EQUATIONs with negative
COEFFICIENTs, and his work with magic squares in geometry.Zeno of Elea (ca. 490–25 B.C.E.) Greek philosopher whose four
paradoxes on motion, as described by Aristotle, relate to the
field of calculus and infinitesimals. The ideas state that if
something has a magnitude and it can be divided, then it can be
divided infinitely; and if it has no magnitude, then it does not
exist. Zeno’s Dichotomy states “There is no motion, because
that which is moved must arrive at the middle before it arrives
at the end, and so on ad infinitum.” The Achilles is, “The
slower will never be overtaken by the quicker, for that which is
pursuing must first reach the point from which that which is
fleeing started, so that the slower must always be some
DISTANCEahead.” The fable of the tortoise and the hare
embodies this idea. His paradox called the Arrow is, “If
everything is either at rest or moving when it occupies a space
equal to itself, while the object moved is always in the instant,
a moving arrow is unmoved.” And the Stadium states,
“Consider two rows of bodies, each composed of an equal
number of bodies of equal size. They pass each other as they
travel with equal VELOCITYin opposite directions. Thus, half a
time is equal to the whole time.”Zhang Heng (78–139) Chinese astrologer, astronomer, geographer,
and mathematician who invented the first seismograph, which
he called the “instrument for inquiring into the wind and the
shaking of the earth.” He also constructed the first rotating
globe of the Earth in China, which demonstrated his belief that
the world was round.BIOGRAPHIES Zeno of Elea – Zhang Heng
BIOGRAPHIES Zeno of Elea – Zhang Heng