Euclid is regarded as the world's greatest mathematician and his book, The Elements, is the second most reprinted book in history. It is second only to the Bible.




Philip Emeagwali
interviewed by Reuben Abati for The Nigerian Guardian.

The African mathematician, Euclid, influenced my work more than any other person.

I use various geometrical figures such as this compound of the small hexagonal hexecontahedron and its dual small snub icosicosidodecahedron to design algorithms and computers such as the hyperball.

I used Euclidean geometry to formulate my theory of tessellated models for parallel computing and to introduce the concepts of parallel data spaces. My theory of tessellated models demonstrated that sphere packing and fast calculations needed to recover and discover more oil are related subjects.

Philip Emeagwali discovered that sphere packing and fast computing are related fields.

The African mathematician Fibonnaci also influenced my work. I used his discovery of the breeding patterns, called the Fibonacci series, to design the Emeagwali-Fibonnaci hypertree computer networks.

I used ideas from the field of chemistry to design algorithms, software and computers that are enantiomeric --- that is, have left- and right-handed versions like shoes.

The major influences on my work are from African scientists. Euclid never set his feet outside the African soil and lived in a city that is predominately black, with a few Jewish and Greek immigrants that were not interested in scholarship. Euclid is regarded as the world's greatest mathematician and his book, The Elements, is the second most reprinted book in history. It is second only to the Bible. He is most likely a black African.

Fibonacci was also born and raised in Africa but later emigrated to Europe and subsequently became renowned as the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages.

Chemistry or "chemetic science" was derived from the word "chemet" which is the ancient name for Africa or "land of the blacks." In other words, "chemistry" literally means "the black man's science."


Click on photograph for full-scale Hyperball nature-inspired computer network invented by Emeagwali.

Related articles/websites

Emeagwali's Website

Interviews

His wife

Letters to Emeagwali

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