Little
is known of Hipparchus’ life, but he is known to have been born in Nicaea in
Bithynia. The town of Nicaea is now called Iznik and is situated in
north-western Turkey. Despite being a mathematician and astronomer of great
importance, Hipparchus’ work has not been well documented; only one work of
his has survived, namely Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus. Most of his
discoveries have been made known to us only through Ptolemy’s Almagest.
His contributions to the field of mathematics include producing a trigonometric
table of chords, introducing the division of a circle into 360˚