Abraham Lincoln read it more than any other book, except the Bible. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote a poem about its pure and simple beauty.
“So, what has that to do with mathematics?” you might ask. The book is Euclid’s Elements—a mathematical treatise that is perhaps the most successful and influential textbook ever written…and it dates to over 2,300 years ago.
It is a collection of mathematical proofs, postulates, propositions and the like that cover topics like number theory, geometry, lines and more. For example, Euclid was the first to recognize that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, which may seem obvious to us now—but he was the first, not just to write it down, but to demonstrate it is true.
You see, Euclid’s Elements is more than a math textbook. Abraham Lincoln studied it, because he wanted to know how to really prove something—that is, he desired to make sure that he argued only things that were demonstrably true. In a manner of speaking, Honest Abe’s study of Euclid was itself an exercise in personal honesty. And in the end, his logically irrefutable arguments against slavery changed history.
Edna St. Vincent Millay said that “Euclid alone Has looked on Beauty bare.” She saw the beauty in Euclid’s work, because it shows the eternal, unchanging nature of the Truth. Logic, logos, the true Word is not merely useful—it is truly beautiful.
Math doesn’t just change the world by making it possible to build bridges and skyscrapers, computers and machines. It can change the way perceive the world altogether—it can help us to see its beauty and its truth.
Have a wonderful day.
