Do I have to know all the euclidean elements proofs?

[simpy]

Is it necessary to know the proofs of all the propositions in Euclid's elements?
Or one can directly jump to euclidean and precollege geometry, of course he/she will have knowledge of propositions( just the statements and all that) but not the proofs.
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[micromass]

What is it that you want to do??

I don't think knowing all the elements proofs by heart will help you. Of course, you must be able to understand all the proofs and to be able to prove things for yourself. But memorizing the proofs is senseless.

 

[Norfonz]

Reading Euclid's Elements is not necessary for one who is just beginning to study geometry. However, you might find it both interesting and useful. Give it a shot if you have time. As always, learn for the sake of knowledge.

 

[cgk]

Is it necessary to know the proofs of all the propositions in Euclid's elements?
Or one can directly jump to euclidean and precollege geometry, of course he/she will have knowledge of propositions( just the statements and all that) but not the proofs.

No one cares about Euclid's propositions or proofs. This type of geometry is only used as a training tool to get the concept of "proof" into pupil's heads. Euclidean-type geometry is later completely replaced by analytic geometry or geometric algebra, both of which are *MUCH* more powerful and make most of the proofs either trivial or excercises in calculation (the kind of calculation you can type into Mathematica and get the right answer immediately).

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Do not write something like this. It is counter-productive.

 

[sponsoredwalk]

Something like this that groups all the propositions in the book together under subheadings is a tool you could use for re-deriving the maximum amount of information with the smallest amount of memorization if you actually wanted to do this. I'm trying to do this myself right now & came across this page in search of a different page I'd thought I'd bookmarked that grouped the propositions in a better way than that in the above link & also had more than just the first book of Euclid - if anybody comes across anything like that please post it.