Menaechmus (ca. 380 BC-?) -- from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography (original) (raw)

Greek mathematician and geometer said to have been the tutor of Alexander the Great. When his pupil asked him for a shortcut to geometry, he replied "O King, for traveling over the country, there are royal road to geometry and roads for common citizens, but in geometry there is one road for all" (Beckmann 1989, p. 34). However, this quote has also been attributed to the tutor of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)

References

Beckmann, P. A History of Pi, 3rd ed. New York: Dorset Press, 1989.

© 1996-2007 Eric W. Weisstein