Fields of Indian mathematics
Some of the areas of mathematics studied in ancient and medieval India include the following:
* Arithmetic: Decimal system, Negative numbers (see Brahmagupta), Zero (see Hindu-Arabic numeral system), the modern positional notation numeral system, Floating point numbers (see Kerala School), Number theory, Infinity (see Yajur Veda), Transfinite numbers, Irrational numbers (see Shulba Sutras)
* Geometry: Square roots (see Bakhshali approximation), Cube roots (see Mahavira), Pythagorean triples (see Sulba Sutras; Baudhayana and Apastamba state the Pythagorean theorem without proof), Transformation (see Panini), Pascal's triangle (see Pingala)
* Algebra: Quadratic equations (see Sulba Sutras, Aryabhata, and Brahmagupta), Cubic equations and Quartic equations (biquadratic equations) (see Mahavira and Bhāskara II)
* Mathematical logic: Formal grammars, formal language theory, the Panini-Backus form (see Panini), Recursion (see Panini)
* General mathematics: Fibonacci numbers (see Pingala), Earliest forms of Morse code (see Pingala), Logarithms, indices (see Jaina mathematics), Algorithms, Algorism (see Aryabhata and Brahmagupta)
* Trigonometry: Trigonometric functions (see Surya Siddhanta and Aryabhata), Trigonometric series (see Madhava and Kerala School)
Indian mathematics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History of natural numbers and the status of zero
The natural numbers had their origins in the words used to count things, beginning with the number 1.[1]
The first major advance in abstraction was the use of numerals to represent numbers. This allowed systems to be developed for recording large numbers. The ancient Egyptians developed a powerful system of numerals with distinct hieroglyphs for 1, 10, and all the powers of 10 up to one million. The Babylonians had a place-value system based essentially on the numerals for 1 and 10. A stone carving from Karnak, dating from around 1500 BC and now at the Louvre in Paris, depicts 276 as 2 hundreds, 7 tens, and 6 ones; and similarly for the number 4,622.
A much later advance in abstraction was the development of the idea of zero as a number with its own numeral. A zero digit had been used in place-value notation as early as 700 BC by the Babylonians but they omitted it when it would have been the last symbol in the number.[2] The Olmec and Maya civilization used zero developed independently as a separate number as early as 1st century BC, but this usage did not spread beyond Mesoamerica. The concept as used in modern times originated with the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta in 628. Nevertheless, medieval computers (e.g. people who calculated the date of Easter), beginning with Dionysius Exiguus in 525, used zero as a number without using a Roman numeral to write it. Instead nullus, the Latin word for "nothing", was employed.
The first systematic study of numbers as abstractions (that is, as abstract entities) is usually credited to the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Archimedes. Note that many Greek mathematicians did not consider 1 to be "a number", so to them 2 was the smallest number.[3]
Independent studies also occurred at around the same time in India, China, and Mesoamerica.
Several set-theoretical definitions of natural numbers were developed in the 19th century. With these definitions it was convenient to include 0 (corresponding to the empty set) as a natural number. Including 0 is now the common convention among set theorists, logicians, and computer scientists. Many other mathematicians also include 0, although some have kept the older tradition and take 1 to be the first natural number[4]. Sometimes the set of natural numbers with 0 included is called the set of whole numbers or counting numbers.
Negative numbers appear for the first time in history in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Jiu zhang suan-shu), which in its present form dates from the period of the Han Dynasty (202 BC 220 AD), but may well contain much older material.[2] The Nine Chapters used red counting rods to denote positive coefficients and black rods for negative.[3] (This system is the exact opposite of contemporary printing of positive and negative numbers in the fields of banking, accounting, and commerce, wherein red numbers denote negative values and black numbers signify positive values). The Chinese were also able to solve simultaneous equations involving negative numbers.
For a long time, negative solutions to problems were considered "false". In Hellenistic Egypt, Diophantus in the third century A.D. referred to an equation that was equivalent to 4x + 20 = 0 (which has a negative solution) in Arithmetica, saying that the equation was absurd.
The use of negative numbers was known in early India, and their role in situations like mathematical problems of debt was understood.[4] Consistent and correct rules for working with these numbers were formulated.[5] The diffusion of this concept led the Arab intermediaries to pass it to Europe.[4]
The ancient Indian Bakhshali Manuscript, which Pearce Ian claimed was written some time between 200 B.C. and A.D. 300,[6] while George Gheverghese Joseph dates it to about 400 AD and Takao Hayashi to no later than the early 7th century,[7] carried out calculations with negative numbers, using "+" as a negative sign.[8]