Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society

Research Article

The Treatment of Arithmetic Progressions by Archimedes

Professor Gibson

The following paper was written last summer, and was submitted to Dr Mackay with a view to eliciting his opinion particularly on the curious passage referred to in § 3, and on the remarks contained in § 8. I was not aware of the intention of Mr T. L. Heath to follow up his excellent edition of Apollonius by an edition of Archimedes on similar lines, and when I saw the announcement of his Archimedes in the month of October, I at once concluded that the notes I had made would have been anticipated by him. Since reading his masterly work, however, I am disposed to think there is still sufficient interest in the notes I have written to justify me in laying them before the Society; I therefore submit them in their original form, although I should have omitted certain details had I been acquainted with Mr Heath's work before writing the paper.