Hypsicles

Hypsicles of Alexandria

Born: about 180 BC in (possibly) Alexandria, Egypt
Died: about 120 BC

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Hypsicles wrote a treatise on regular polyhedra. He is essentially the author of Book XIV of Euclid's Elements which deals with inscribing regular solids in a sphere.

In this work Hypsicles proves some results due to Apollonius, he had clearly studied Apollonius's tract on inscribing a dodecahedron and an icosahedron in the same sphere and attempts to improve on Apollonius's treatment.

Hypsicles also wrote On the Ascension of Stars . In this work he was the first to divide the Zodiac into 360degrees. He says

The circle of the zodiac having been divided into 360 equal arcs, let each of the arcs be called a spatial degree, and likewise, if the time taken by the zodiac circle to return from a point to the same point is divided into 360 equal times, let each of the times be called a temporal degree.

Hypsicles considers two problems in this work.

Given the ratio of the longest to the shortest day at any place, how long does it take any given sign of the zodiac to rise there?

How long does it take any given degree in a sign to rise?

Hypsicles makes a false assumption so his results are wrong.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. T L Heath, A History of Greek Mathematics I (Oxford, 1921), 419-420 and II, 213-218.. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996