Early Literary Evidence of the Use of the Zero in India
01 Nov 1926-American Mathematical Monthly (AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY)-Vol. 38, Iss: 10, pp 566-572
TL;DR: Early literary evidence of the use of the zero in India can be found in this paper, where the zero is used to represent the zero point of a zero in a zero space.
Abstract: (1931). Early Literary Evidence of the Use of the Zero in India. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 38, No. 10, pp. 566-572.
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TL;DR: The final section of the story reveals that much of the language of zero has a considerable historical evolution; the language about zero is a reflection of man's historical difficulty with this concept.
Abstract: The comments noted above display the language used to convey some of the common misconceptions about zero. This paper is about the language of zero. The initial two sections deal with both the spoken and written symbols used to convey the concepts of zero. Yet these alone leave much of the story untold. The sections on computational algorithms and the exceptional behaviour of zero illustrate much language of and about zero. The final section of the story reveals that much of the language of zero has a considerable historical evolution; the language about zero is a reflection of man's historical difficulty with this concept.
16 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The changing landscape of the history of numbers and arithmetic in India at the beginning of the XXth century is examined, after a detour in mid-XIXth century France, through the debate that opposed G. R. Kaye to a group of Indian historians of mathematics and astronomy on the origins of the decimal place value position as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The changing landscape of the history of numbers and arithmetic in India at the beginning of the XXth century is examined, after a detour in mid-XIXth century France, through the debate that opposed G. R. Kaye to a group of Indian historians of mathematics and astronomy on the origins of the decimal place value position. This study highlights how Peacock's historical analysis of algebra and arithmetic's genesis seems to have been singular and isolated in mainstream histories of science. It also chronicles the birth of the scholarly field of the history of mathematics in India.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new and simple matrix inversion method which makes full use of the condensation technique of the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Dodgson, is presented.
Abstract: This article furnishes a new and simple matrix inversion method which makes full use of the condensation technique of the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Dodgson. A special feature of this article is the adoption of Bhaskara’s Law of Impending Operation on Zero in overcoming the problem of division by zero whenever zero appears as a divisor in the condensation technique of Dodgson.
3 citations
Cites background from "Early Literary Evidence of the Use ..."
...The first master of the use of zero, the number representing absolute nothing [23],[24] [25] was the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta [26]....
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01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) as discussed by the authors wrote the credo Sedulo curavi, humanas actiones non redere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere.
Abstract: Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), that gentle philosopher of the seventeenth century laid down as his credo “Sedulo curavi, humanas actiones non redere, non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere”. He says that when he sets out to interpret the thoughts and history of a bygone age, he obeys the above injunctions set by him for himself — not to ridicule, not to mourn, never to detest, but try to understand — an excellent piece of advice to anyone who interprets ancient writings. I hope I abide by Spinoza’s admonitions.
3 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that the authors ignore its true merit.
Abstract: It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity, the great ease which it has lent to all computations, puts our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of this achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity. (Quoted in (Dantzig, 1930), p. 19)
2 citations