Anaxagoras

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae

Born: 499 BC in Clazomenae (30 km west of Izmir), Lydia (now Turkey)
Died: 428 BC in Lampsacus, Mysia (now Turkey)

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Anaxagoras moved to Athens in about 480 BC. In about 450 BC he was imprisoned for claiming that the Sun was not a god and that the Moon reflected the Sun's light.

While in prison he tried to solve the problem of squaring the circle, that is constructing with ruler and compasses a square with area equal to that of a given circle. This is the first record of this problem being studied.

Anaxagoras was saved from prison by Pericles but had to leave Athens.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. F M Cleve, The philosophy of Anaxagoras (New York, 1949).
  4. J Zafiropulo, Anaxagore de Clazomène (1948) 
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JOC/EFR February 1996