chords of these arcs in parts of which the diameter contains 120, the subdivisions being sexagesimal; and in the third he has inserted the thirtieth parts of the differences of these chords for each half-degree, in order that the chords of the intermediate arcs, which do not occur in the table, may be calculated, it being assumed that the increment of the chords of arcs within the table for each interval of 30′ is proportional to the increment of the arc.[1]
Trigonometry, we have seen, was created by Hipparchus for the use of astronomers. Now, since spherical trigonometry is directly applicable to astronomy, it is not surprising that its development was prior to that of plane trigonometry. It is the subject-matter of the eleventh chapter of the Almagest, whilst the solution of plane triangles is not treated separately in that work.
To resolve a plane triangle the Greeks supposed it to be inscribed in a circle; they must therefore have known the theorem—which is the basis of this branch of trigonometry: The sides of a triangle are proportional to the chords of the double arcs which measure the angles opposite to those sides. In the case of a right-angled triangle this theorem, together with Eucl. I. 32 and 47, gives the complete solution. Other triangles were resolved into right-angled triangles by drawing the perpendicular from a vertex on the opposite side. In one place (Alm. vi. ch. 7; i. 422, ed. Halma) Ptolemy solves a triangle in which the three sides are given by finding the segments of a side made by the perpendicular on it from the opposite vertex. It should be noticed also that the eleventh chapter of the first book of the Almagest contains incidentally some theorems and problems in plane trigonometry. The problems which are met with correspond to the following: Divide a given arc into two parts so that the chords of the doubles of those arcs shall have a given ratio; the same problem for external section. Lastly, it may be mentioned that Ptolemy (Alm. vi. ch. 7; i. 421, ed. Halma) takes 3° 8′ 30″, i.e. 3+860+303600＝3·1416, as the value of the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, and adds that, as had been shown by Archimedes, it lies between 317 and 31071.
The foundation of spherical trigonometry is laid in chapter xi. on a few simple and useful lemmas. The starting-point is the well known theorem of plane geometry concerning the segments of the sides of a triangle made by a transversal: The segments of any side are in a ratio compounded of the ratios of the segments of the other two sides. This theorem, as well as that concerning the inscribed quadrilateral, was called after Ptolemy—naturally, indeed, since no reference to its source occurs in the Almagest. This error was corrected by Mersenne, who showed that it was known to Menelaus, an astronomer and geometer who lived in the reign of the emperor Trajan. The theorem now bears the name of Menelaus, though most probably it came down from Hipparchus; Chasles, indeed, thinks that Hipparchus deduced the property of the spherical triangle from that of the plane triangle, but throws the origin of the latter farther back and attributes it to Euclid, suggesting that it was given in his Porisms.[2] Carnot made this theorem the basis of his theory of transversals in his essay on that subject. It should be noticed that the theorem is not given in the Almagest in the general manner stated above; Ptolemy considers two cases only of the theorem, and Theon, in his commentary on the Almagest, has added two more cases. The proofs, however, are general. Ptolemy then lays down two lemmas: If the chord of an arc of a circle be cut in any ratio and a diameter be drawn through the point of section, the diameter will cut the arc into two parts the chords of whose doubles are in the same ratio as the segments of the chord; and a similar theorem in the case when the chord is cut externally in any ratio. By means of these two lemmas Ptolemy deduces in an ingenious manner—easy to follow, but difficult to discover—from the theorem of Menelaus for a plane triangle the corresponding theorem for a spherical triangle: If the sides of a spherical triangle be cut by an arc of a great circle, the chords of the doubles of the segments of any one side will be to each other in a ratio compounded of the ratios of the chords of the doubles of the segments of the other two sides. Here, too, the theorem is not stated generally; two cases only are considered, corresponding to the two cases given in plano. Theon has added two cases. The proofs are general. By means of this theorem four of Napier’s formulae for the solution of right-angled spherical triangles can be easily established. Ptolemy does not give them, but in each case when required applies the theorem of Menelaus for spherics directly. This greatly increases the length of his demonstrations, which the modern reader finds still more cumbrous, inasmuch as in each case it was necessary to express the relation in terms of chords—the equivalents of sines—only, cosines and tangents being of later invention.
Such, then, was the trigonometry of the Greeks. Mathematics, indeed, has ever been, as it were, the handmaid of astronomy, and many important methods of the former arose from the needs of the latter. Moreover, by the foundation of trigonometry, astronomy attained its final general constitution, in which calculations took the place of diagrams, as these latter had been at an earlier period substituted for mechanical apparatus in solving the ordinary problems.[3] Further, we find in the application of trigonometry to astronomy frequent examples and even a systematic use of the method of approximations—the basis, in fact, of all application of mathematics to practical questions. There was a disinclination on the part of the Greek geometer to be satisfied with a mere approximation, were it ever so close; and the unscientific agrimensor shirked the labour involved in acquiring the knowledge which was indispensable for learning trigonometrical calculations. Thus the development of the calculus of approximations fell to the lot of the astronomer, who was both scientific and practical.[4]
We now proceed to notice briefly the contents of the Almagest. It is divided into thirteen books. The first book, which may be regarded as introductory to the whole work, opens with a short preface, in which Ptolemy, after some observations on the distinction between theory and practice, gives Aristotle’s division of the sciences and remarks on the certainty of mathematical knowledge, “inasmuch as the demonstrations in it proceed by the incontrovertible ways of arithmetic and geometry.” He concludes his preface with the statement that he will make use of the discoveries of his predecessors, and relate briefly all that has been sufficiently explained by the ancients, but that he will treat with more care and development whatever has not been well understood or fully treated. Ptolemy unfortunately does not always bear this in mind, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what is due to him from that which he has borrowed from his predecessors.
Ptolemy then, in the first chapter, presupposing some preliminary notions on the part of the reader, announces that he will treat in order—what is the relation of the earth to the heavens, what is the position of the oblique circle (the ecliptic), and the situation of the inhabited parts of the earth; that he will point out the differences of climates; that he will then pass on to the consideration of the motion of the sun and moon, without which one cannot have a just theory of the stars; lastly, that he will consider the sphere of the fixed stars and then the theory of the live stars called “planets.” All these things—i.e. the phenomena of the heavenly bodies—he says he will endeavour to explain in taking for principle that which is evident, real and certain, in resting everywhere on the surest observations and applying geometrical methods. He then enters on a summary exposition of the general principles on which his Syntaxis is based, and adduces arguments to show that the heaven is of a spherical form and that it moves after the manner of a sphere, that the earth also is of a form which is sensibly spherical, that the earth is in the centre of the heavens, that it is but a point in comparison with the distances of the stars, and that it has not an motion of translation. With respect to the revolution of the earth round its axis, which he says some have held, Ptolemy, while admitting that this supposition renders the explanation of the phenomena of the heavens much more simple, yet regards it as altogether ridiculous. Lastly, he lays down that there are two principal and different motions in the heavens—one by which all the stars are carried from east to west uniformly about the poles of the equator; the other, which is peculiar to some of the stars, is in a contrary direction to the former motion and takes place round different poles. These preliminary notions, which are all older than Ptolemy, form the subjects of the second and following chapters. He next proceeds to the construction of his table of chords, of which we have given an account, and which is indispensable to practical astronomy. The employment of this table presupposes the evaluation of the obliquity of the ecliptic, the knowledge of which is indeed the foundation of all astronomical science. Ptoiemy in the next chapter indicates two means of determining this angle by observation, describes the instruments he employed for that purpose, and finds the same value which had already been found by Eratosthenes and used by Hipparchus. This “is followed by spherical geometry and trigonometry enough for the determination of the connexion between the sun’s right ascension, declination and longitude, and for the formation of a table of declinations to each degree of longitude. Delambre says he found both this and the table of chords very exact.”[5]
In book ii., after some remarks on the situation of the habitable parts of the earth, Ptolemy proceeds to make deductions from the principles established in the preceding book, which he does by means of the theorem of Menelaus. The length of the longest day being given, he shows how to determine the arcs of the horizon intercepted between the equator and the ecliptic—the amplitude of the eastern point of the ecliptic at the solstice—for different
- ↑ Ideler has examined the degree of accuracy of the numbers in these tables and finds that they are correct to five places of decimals.
- ↑ On the theorem of Menelaus and the rule of six quantities, see Chasles, Aperçu historique sur l’origine et développement des méthodes en géométrie, note vi. p. 291.
- ↑ Comte, Système de politique positive, iii. 324.
- ↑ Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, p. 356.
- ↑ De Morgan, in Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, s.v. “Ptolemaeus, Claudius.”
