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, Informative) by Immerman on Friday September 22 2017, @11:53PM
Babylonians used base 60, at least in part because it was easily divisible in so many ways: 2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20...
It still survives today in our measurement of time, angles, and geographic coordinates.