Apollonius of Perga may not have known his contemporary Archimedes, but he did improve upon Archimedes' calculation of the value of π.

Greek Geometer
262 B.C.E.–190 B.C.E.

Apollonius, known as "The Great Geometer" to his admirers was born in 262 B.C.E. in the Greek colonial town of Perga in Anatolia, a part of modern Turkey. Apparently Apollonius's intellectual ability was recognized early, and as a young man he attended the university in Alexandria, Egypt, where many of the great scholars of that time were gathered.

Apollonius's teachers had studied with Euclid (c. 330–c. 260 B.C.E.), who is regarded as the most outstanding mathematician of ancient times. Apollonius quickly gained a reputation for his thorough and creative approach to mathematics and was made a professor at the university.

Apollonius wrote a number of books on mathematics, especially geometry. He gathered, correlated...