Euclid

Hello! My name is Euclid. I lived a very, very long time ago in a sunny city called Alexandria in Egypt, around the year 300 BCE. Even though I lived in Egypt, I was Greek. Ever since I was a boy, I loved looking at the world and seeing all the amazing shapes in it. I saw circles in the sun and moon, triangles in the sails of ships, and straight lines on the edges of buildings. I was a mathematician, which is a fancy word for someone who loves to solve puzzles with numbers and shapes.

I wanted to write down everything I knew about shapes so that other people could learn about them too. So, I wrote a very important book called 'Elements'. It was actually a collection of thirteen smaller books all rolled up into scrolls! In 'Elements', I wrote down all the rules for how shapes work. I started with very simple ideas that everyone knows are true, like 'a straight line is the shortest path between two spots.' Then, I used those simple ideas to explain more complicated things, like how to build a perfect square or understand the angles in a triangle. My book was all about geometry, which is the math of shapes and space.

I was also a teacher. I worked in a great big building called the Museum, which had a famous library full of scrolls. The king of Egypt at the time, whose name was Ptolemy the 1st, wanted to learn geometry from me. He asked if there was a special, easy shortcut for a king to learn it all. I smiled and told him, 'Sir, there is no royal road to geometry.' I meant that learning takes practice and patience for everyone, even a king! It’s something you have to work at, but it’s so much fun when you figure it out.

I lived a full life many, many centuries ago. But my ideas live on! For more than 2,000 years, students all over the world used my book 'Elements' to learn about math. The rules I wrote down about shapes are still used today to build strong buildings, design amazing video games, and even send rockets into space. I am remembered as the 'Father of Geometry,' and I hope you'll see the wonder of shapes all around you, just like I did.