Zu Geng or Zu Gengzhi (; ca. 480 – ca. 525) was a Chinese mathematician, politician, and writer. His
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theo ...
was Jingshuo (). He was the son of the famous mathematician
Zu Chongzhi
Zu Chongzhi (; 429–500 AD), courtesy name Wenyuan (), was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, politician, inventor, and writer during the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties. He was most notable for calculating pi as between 3.1415926 and 3 ...
.
He is known principally for deriving and proving the formula for the volume of a sphere. He additionally measured the angular distance between
Polaris
Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude th ...
and the
celestial north pole
The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's rotation around a fixed axis, axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently dire ...
.
See also
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List of Chinese mathematicians
This is a list of Chinese mathematicians. With a history spanning over three millennia, Chinese mathematics is believed to have initially developed largely independently of other cultures.
{{Expand list, date=December 2016
Classical Chinese mathem ...
References
External links
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480 births
525 deaths
5th-century Chinese mathematicians
6th-century Chinese writers
6th-century Chinese mathematicians
Ancient Chinese mathematicians
Liang dynasty politicians
Southern Qi politicians
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