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Mathematics In India (book)
''Mathematics in India: 500 BCE–1800 CE'' is a monograph about the history of Indian mathematics. It was written by American historian of mathematics Kim Plofker, and published in 2009 by the Princeton University Press. The Basic Library List Committee of the Mathematical Association of America has classified the book as essential for undergraduate mathematics libraries, their highest rating. Topics Plofker has organized ''Mathematics in India'' into nine chapters, roughly chronologically, according to the "mainstream narrative" of Indian chronology in a subject where accurate chronology is difficult and disputed. It covers the mathematics of the entire Indian subcontinent, including the modern areas of Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan, but largely restricts itself to Sanskrit-language sources. Unlike many previous works in this area, it views Indian mathematics as a coherent whole, strongly connected to Indian culture and religion, both influencing and being influenced by the ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monograph
A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph'' has a broader meaning—that of a nonserial publication complete in one volume (book) or a definite number of volumes. Thus it differs from a serial or periodical publication such as a magazine, academic journal, or newspaper. In this context only, books such as novels are considered monographs.__FORCETOC__ Academia The English term "monograph" is derived from modern Latin "monographia", which has its root in Greek. In the English word, "mono-" means "single" and "-graph" means "something written". Unlike a textbook, which surveys the state of knowledge in a field, the main purpose of a monograph is to present primary research and original scholarship ascertaining reliable credibility to the required recipient. This research is prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhutasamkhya System
The Bhūtasaṃkhyā system is a method of recording numbers in Sanskrit using common nouns having connotations of numerical values. The method was introduced already in astronomical texts in antiquity, but it was expanded and developed during the medieval period. A kind of rebus system, bhūtasaṃkhyā has also been called the "concrete number notation". For example, the number "two" was associated with the word "eye" as every human being has two eyes. Thus every Sanskrit word having the meaning "eye" was used to denote "two". All words synonymous with the meaning "earth" could be used to signify the number "one" as there is only one earth, etc. In the more expansive examples of application, concepts, ideas and objects from all parts of the Sanskrit lexicon were harvested to generate number-connoting words, resulting in a kind of kenning system for numbers. Thus, every Sanskrit word indicating an "arrow" has been used to denote "five" as Kamadeva, the Hindu deity of love ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahāvīra (mathematician)
Mahāvīra (or Mahaviracharya, "Mahavira the Teacher") was a 9th-century Jain mathematician possibly born in Mysore, in India. He authored '' Gaṇitasārasan̄graha'' (''Ganita Sara Sangraha'') or the Compendium on the gist of Mathematics in 850 AD. He was patronised by the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha. He separated astrology from mathematics. It is the earliest Indian text entirely devoted to mathematics. He expounded on the same subjects on which Aryabhata and Brahmagupta contended, but he expressed them more clearly. His work is a highly syncopated approach to algebra and the emphasis in much of his text is on developing the techniques necessary to solve algebraic problems. He is highly respected among Indian mathematicians, because of his establishment of terminology for concepts such as equilateral, and isosceles triangle; rhombus; circle and semicircle. Mahāvīra's eminence spread throughout South India and his books proved inspirational to other mathematicians in Southe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta ( – ) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He is the author of two early works on mathematics and astronomy: the ''Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta'' (BSS, "correctly established doctrine of Brahma", dated 628), a theoretical treatise, and the '' Khaṇḍakhādyaka'' ("edible bite", dated 665), a more practical text. Brahmagupta was the first to give rules for computing with ''zero''. The texts composed by Brahmagupta were in elliptic verse in Sanskrit, as was common practice in Indian mathematics. As no proofs are given, it is not known how Brahmagupta's results were derived. In 628 CE, Brahmagupta first described gravity as an attractive force, and used the term "gurutvākarṣaṇam (गुरुत्वाकर्षणम्)" in Sanskrit to describe it. Life and career Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE according to his own statement. He lived in ''Bhillamāla'' in Gurjaradesa (modern Bhinmal in Rajasthan, India) during the reign of the Chavda dynasty ruler, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhāskara I
Bhāskara () (commonly called Bhāskara I to avoid confusion with the 12th-century mathematician Bhāskara II) was a 7th-century Indian mathematician and astronomer who was the first to write numbers in the Hindu–Arabic decimal system with a circle for the zero, and who gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work. This commentary, ''Āryabhaṭīyabhāṣya'', written in 629 CE, is among the oldest known prose works in Sanskrit on mathematics and astronomy. He also wrote two astronomical works in the line of Aryabhata's school: the ''Mahābhāskarīya'' (“Great Book of Bhaskara”) and the ''Laghubhāskarīya'' (“Small Book of Bhaskara”). On 7 June 1979, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Bhāskara I satellite, named in honour of the mathematician. Biography Little is known about Bhāskara's life, except for what can be deduced from his writings. He was born in India in the 7th centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aryabhata
Aryabhata (ISO: ) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. He flourished in the Gupta Era and produced works such as the ''Aryabhatiya'' (which mentions that in 3600 ''Kali Yuga'', 499 CE, he was 23 years old) and the ''Arya-siddhanta.'' Aryabhata created a system of phonemic number notation in which numbers were represented by consonant-vowel monosyllables. Later commentators such as Brahmagupta divide his work into ''Ganita ("Mathematics"), Kalakriya ("Calculations on Time") and Golapada ("Spherical Astronomy")''. His pure mathematics discusses topics such as determination of square and cube roots, geometrical figures with their properties and mensuration, arithmetric progression problems on the shadow of the gnomon, quadratic equations, linear and indeterminate equations. Aryabhata calculated the value of pi (''π)'' to the fourth decimal digit and was likely aware that p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geocentrism
In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, often exemplified specifically by the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the Universe with Earth at the center. Under most geocentric models, the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets all orbit Earth. The geocentric model was the predominant description of the cosmos in many European ancient civilizations, such as those of Aristotle in Classical Greece and Ptolemy in Roman Egypt. Two observations supported the idea that Earth was the center of the Universe: * First, from anywhere on Earth, the Sun appears to revolve around Earth once per day. While the Moon and the planets have their own motions, they also appear to revolve around Earth about once per day. The stars appeared to be fixed on a celestial sphere rotating once each day about an axis through the geographic poles of Earth. * Second, Earth seems to be unmoving from the perspective of an earthbound observer; it feels solid, stable, and stationary. An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial objects in astrology, celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in Calendrical calculation, calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindu astrology, Hindus, Chinese astrology, Chinese, and the Maya civilization, Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia via the Silk Road. It is the world's fourth-largest religion, with over 520 million followers (Buddhists) who comprise seven percent of the global population. The Buddha taught the Middle Way, a path of spiritual development that avoids both extreme asceticism and hedonism. It aims at liberation from clinging and craving to things which are impermanent (), incapable of satisfying ('), and without a lasting essence (), ending the cycle of death and rebirth (). A summary of this path is expressed in the Noble Eightfold Path, a training of the mind with observance of Buddhist ethics and meditation. Other widely observed practices include: monasticism; " taking refuge" in the Buddha, the , and the ; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago, the twenty-third ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha, whom historians date to the 9th century BCE, and the twenty-fourth ''tirthankara'' Mahāvīra, Mahavira, around 600 BCE. Jainism is considered to be an eternal ''dharma'' with the ''tirthankaras'' guiding every time cycle of the Jain cosmology, cosmology. The three main pillars of Jainism are ''Ahimsa in Jainism, ahiṃsā'' (non-violence), ''anekāntavāda'' (non-absolutism), and ''aparigraha'' (asceticism). Jain monks, after positioning themselves in the sublime state of soul consciousness, take five main vows: ''ahiṃsā'' (non-violence), ''satya'' (truth), ''Achourya, asteya'' (not stealing), ''b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recursion
Recursion (adjective: ''recursive'') occurs when a thing is defined in terms of itself or of its type. Recursion is used in a variety of disciplines ranging from linguistics to logic. The most common application of recursion is in mathematics and computer science, where a function being defined is applied within its own definition. While this apparently defines an infinite number of instances (function values), it is often done in such a way that no infinite loop or infinite chain of references ("crock recursion") can occur. Formal definitions In mathematics and computer science, a class of objects or methods exhibits recursive behavior when it can be defined by two properties: * A simple ''base case'' (or cases) — a terminating scenario that does not use recursion to produce an answer * A ''recursive step'' — a set of rules that reduces all successive cases toward the base case. For example, the following is a recursive definition of a person's ''ancestor''. One's ances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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