1st century AD Hellenized Egyptian mathematician and engineer
Heron of Alexandria
Ἥρων
17th-century German depiction of Heron
Citizenship
Alexandria, Roman Egypt
Known for
Aeolipile Heron's fountain Heron's formula Vending machine
Scientific career
Fields
Mathematics Physics Pneumatic and hydraulic engineering
Hero of Alexandria (/ˈhɪəroʊ/; Greek: Ἥρων[1] ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Hērōn hò Alexandreús, also known as Heron of Alexandria/ˈhɛrən/; fl. 60 AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria in Egypt during the Roman era. He is often considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity[2] and his work is representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.[3]
Hero published a well-recognized description of a steam-powered device called an aeolipile (sometimes called a "Hero engine"). Among his most famous inventions was a windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of wind harnessing on land.[4][5] He is said to have been a follower of the atomists. In his work Mechanics, he described pantographs.[6] Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius.
In mathematics he is mostly remembered for Heron's formula, a way to calculate the area of a triangle using only the lengths of its sides.
Much of Hero's original writings and designs have been lost, but some of his works were preserved including in manuscripts from the Eastern Roman Empire and to a lesser extent, in Latin or Arabic translations.
^Genitive: Ἥρωνος.
^Research Machines plc. (2004). The Hutchinson dictionary of scientific biography. Abingdon, Oxon: Helicon Publishing. p. 546. Hero of Alexandria (lived c. AD 60) Greek mathematician, engineer and the greatest experimentalist of antiquity
^Marie Boas, "Hero's Pneumatica: A Study of Its Transmission and Influence", Isis, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Feb., 1949), p. 38 and supra
^Cite error: The named reference Drachmann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Lohrmann 10f. was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ceccarelli, Marco (2007). Distinguished Figures in Mechanism and Machine Science: Their Contributions and Legacies. Springer. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-4020-6366-4.
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HeroofAlexandria (/ˈhɪəroʊ/; Greek: Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Hērōn hò Alexandreús, also known as Heron ofAlexandria /ˈhɛrən/; fl. 60 AD) was a Greek mathematician...
exiting the turbine. The Greek-Egyptian mathematician and engineer HeroofAlexandria described the device in the 1st century AD, and many sources give...
Library ofAlexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The library was part of a larger...
numbers.[citation needed] The ancient Greek mathematician and engineer HeroofAlexandria defined a gnomon as that which, when added or subtracted to an entity...
mathematician HeroofAlexandria compiled recipes for dozens of contraptions in his work, Pneumatics. It has been speculated that much of this work can...
clock'". This tradition continued in Alexandria with inventors such as the Greek mathematician HeroofAlexandria (sometimes known as Heron), whose writings...
the Greek scientist and engineer HeroofAlexandria in his book Pneumatics. Hero described and provided drawings of "A bird made to whistle by flowing...
the early 2nd millennium BC. In Roman Egypt, HeroofAlexandria (c. 10–70 AD) identified the pulley as one of six simple machines used to lift weights. Pulleys...
plane) and were able to roughly calculate their mechanical advantage.HeroofAlexandria (c. 10–75 AD) in his work Mechanics lists five mechanisms that can...
as "ofAlexandria". Ammonius ofAlexandria (3rd century AD), a Greek philosopher from Alexandria and one of the founders of Neoplatonism. Appian of Alexandria...
to the rope. HeroofAlexandria described cranes formed from assemblies of pulleys in the first century. Illustrated versions ofHero's Mechanica (a book...
of being under kings who loved fame and supported the arts. Proclus (the commentator on Euclid) and HeroofAlexandria (the last of the engineers of antiquity)...
degree of reaction and impulse from the blade root to its periphery. HeroofAlexandria demonstrated the turbine principle in an aeolipile in the first century...
S2CID 30137359. HeroofAlexandria; Bennet Woodcroft (trans.) (1851). Temple Doors opened by Fire on an Altar. Pneumatics ofHeroofAlexandria. London: Taylor...
HeroofAlexandria and mostly composed of metal (the spring mechanism and the skeins), it shot bolts that were smaller than those in other forms of ballistae...
was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library ofAlexandria. His work is comparable to what is now known as the study of geography...
opposing side of the surface normal in the plane formed by the incident and reflected rays. This behavior was first described by HeroofAlexandria (AD c. 10–70)...
Unity and Diversity of the Mediterranean World", Osiris 2, p. 406-463 [429] John H. Lienhard (1995). "HeroofAlexandria". The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Episode...
citizen ofAlexandria, developed the first fire pump in the third century BC, which was later improved upon in a design by HeroofAlexandria in the first...
historians, Biton is valuable as the only ancient witness other than HeroofAlexandria to mention non-torsion catapults. The lost treatise on optics is known...
philosophers, Ptolemy's views were shared by other mathematicians such as HeroofAlexandria. There are several characters or items named after Ptolemy, including:...
treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps, and allegedly designed a kind of cannon as reported by HeroofAlexandria. In the life sciences...
with the sides of the triangle, are of the same size as the base square. A much older theorem, preserved in the works ofHeroofAlexandria, states that...
Timeline of motor and engine technology (c. 30–70 AD) – HeroofAlexandria describes the first documented steam-powered device, the aeolipile. 13th century...
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