History of geometry History of geometry Geometry (from the ; "geo-" "earth", "-metron" "measurement") arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers (arithmetic). Classic geometry was focused in compass and straightedge constructions. Geometry was revolutionized by Euclid, who introduced mathematical rigor and the axiomatic method still in use today. His book, "The Elements" is widely considered the most influential textbook of all time, and was known to all educated people in the West until the middle of the 20th century. In modern times, geometric
Spherical geometry geometries exist; see elliptic geometry. The earliest mathematical work of antiquity to come down to our time is "On the rotating sphere" (Peri kinoumenes sphairas) by Autolycus of Pitane, who lived at the end of the fourth century BC. Spherical trigonometry was studied by early Greek mathematicians such as Theodosius of Bithynia, a Greek astronomer and mathematician who wrote the Sphaerics, a book on the geometry of the sphere, and Menelaus of Alexandria, who wrote a book on spherical trigonometry called "Sphaerica" and developed Menelaus' theorem. "The book of unknown arcs of a sphere" written by the Islamic mathematician Al-Jayyani