Portal:Mathematics/Featured picture/2010 05

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Picture of the month

Credit: Jitse Niesen

Oxyrhynchus papyrus showing fragment of Euclid's Elements

Euclid's Elements (Greek: {{polytonic|Στοιχεῖα}} Stoicheia) is a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulates (axioms), propositions (theorems and constructions), and mathematical proofs of the propositions. The thirteen books cover Euclidean geometry and the ancient Greek version of elementary number theory. The Elements is one of the oldest extant Greek mathematical treatises, the oldest extant axiomatic deductive treatment of mathematics, and has proven instrumental in the development of logic and modern science. It is also the most successful and influential textbook ever written.

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