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India's contributions to mathematics:
It should come as no surprise that the first recorded use of the number zero, recently discovered to be made as early as the 3rd or 4th century, happened in India. Mathematics on the Indian subcontinent has a rich history going back over 3,000 years and thrived for centuries before similar advances were made in Europe, with its influence meanwhile spreading to China and the Middle East.
As well as giving us the concept of zero, Indian mathematicians made seminal contributions to the study of trigonometry, algebra, arithmetic and negative numbers among other areas. Perhaps most significantly, the decimal system that we still employ worldwide today was first seen in India.
With such a significant technical lead, how did they fall behind?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Friday September 22 2017, @10:55PM (3 children)
We tend to think that once a level is achieved there is no going back, but history shows that societies do slide back. We went from knowing the Earth is round and Eratosthenes [wikipedia.org] measuring its circumference to believing it is flat. The Arabs went from a great height in Mathematics and other sciences to being basically ignorant.
We run the same risk. Democracy, Freedom and Knowledge are not simply achieved, they must be guarded and tended with care, otherwise future generations may ask themselves: how did they fall behind?
One guy told me a few days ago that exact sciences were not that exact, because 1 and 1 is not always 2 and every theory is later supplanted by a different one. I could not quite grasp his explanation about 1 plus 1 not always being 2, something to do with mystical shit but I could see his confusion about the development of science.
Multiply this college-educated man by millions and you can see the dark ages coming: scientists incarcerated or killed, science books destroyed for being heretic and all that good stuff.
I’m not saying that is the case with ancient India but I’ll bet dollars to donuts something like that happened at some point.
(Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday September 22 2017, @11:09PM
Run!!! It is a Pythagorean! He will tell you that the monad (one) added to itself (the same one), can never be two (the dyad), and he is right. But for large values of one (the monad+), it can be two. Pythagoreans! Always trying to grow a pair! Think what they could have done with zero (nought)!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @11:20PM
> We went from knowing the Earth is round and Eratosthenes [wikipedia.org] measuring its circumference to believing it is flat.
The only group in history who beleved in a flat earth were late 19th century Amerians.
They made up stories sniggering about people laughing at how Columbus thought the world was round and somehow ended up beleveing that themselves.
(Score: 2) by number11 on Saturday September 23 2017, @03:27AM
True. And those concepts have very little to do with each other.
Not that it matters. Doesn't the world end tomorrow? Though if it doesn't, the "Knowledge" part of that quote will have been proven.