Dinostratus

Amyclas of Heraclea, one of the associates of Plato, and Menaechmus, a pupil of Eudoxus who had studied with Plato, and his brother Dinostratus made the whole of geometry still more perfect.

Dinostratus used the quadratrix, discovered by Hippias, to solve the problem of squaring the circle. Pappus tells us

For the squaring of the circle there was used by Dinostratus, Nicomedes and certain other later persons a certain curve which took its name from this property, for it is called by them square-forming in other words the quadratrix.

It appears that Hippias discovered the curve but it was Dinostratus who was the first to use it to find a square equal in area to a given circle.

Dinostratus probably did much more work on geometry but nothing is known of it.

References (2 books/articles)

References elsewhere in this archive:

Show me the quadratrix