The curriculum for the education of statesmen at the time of Plato included arithmetic, geometry, solid geometry, astronomy, and music-all of which, the Pythagorean Archytas tells us, fell under the general definition of "mathematics." According to legend, when Alexander the Great asked his teacher Menaechmus {who is reputed to have discovered the curves of the ellipse, the parabola, and the hyperbola} for a shortcut to geometry, he got the reply: "O King, for traveling over the country there are royal roads and roads for common citizens; but in geometry there is one road for all.
( Mario Livio )
[ The Golden Ratio: The Story of ]
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