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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @01:54AM (2 children)
The decimal system sucks. 10 is a lousy base because it divides poorly. Base 12 would have been better, although doesn't match fingers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @06:07AM (1 child)
And then we invented fractions and all that nonsense about base 12 went away. Base fucking 12.... my GOD!
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Saturday September 23 2017, @09:08AM
You can have fractions in any base. Nothing is particularly special about base 10 other than convention.