“Unveiling the Ingenious Visionary of Ancient Greece: A Forgotten Titan Who Redefined Innovation”
Surprisingly little is known about the life of Heron – also known as Hero. Even the years during which he lived are debated among historians. Traditionally, he was believed to have lived either around 150 B.C.E or 250 C.E. However, in the early 20th Century a reference was discovered in one of his works to a solar eclipse which took place on March 13, 62 C.E. Thus, today Heron is thought to have lived from approximately 10 to 70 C.E. His origins and background are also unclear, with historians debating whether he was ethnically Greek, a Hellenized Egyptian, or even a Babylonian. Indeed, as ‘Hero’ or ‘Heron’ was a very common name in Ancient Greece, it is difficult to tell whether contemporary records refer to the inventor and mathematician or another citizen of the same name. All that is known for sure is that Heron lived and worked in the Egyptian city of Alexandria and wrote many books on a variety of mathematical and scientific topics – around 15 of which survive to the present day. Given the sheer breadth of these works, it is almost certain that Heron taught at the Museum or “temple of the muses” – home of the legendary Library of Alexandria.
Heron’s known mathematical works include Definitiones, a glossary of geometric terms; Geometria, an introduction to geometry; Geodesia and Liber Geoponicus, two fragmentary works on land surveying; Metrica, a treatise on calculating the area and volume of various shapes; Stereometrica, a two-volume treatise on three-dimensional geometry; and Mensurae, a treatise on measurement tools. In these volumes, Heron collected and systematized various geometric rules and principles from earlier sources such as Archimedes and the Babylonians, including an equation for determining the area of a triangle from the length of its sides – today known as Heron’s Formula.
