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Five Ways Ancient India Changed the World – With Maths

posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 22 2017, @10:06PM   
from the what-about-the-Greeks? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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?

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Original Submission

• Re:A few things (Score: 3, Interesting) by number11 on Saturday September 23 2017, @03:23AM

  by number11 (1170) on Saturday September 23 2017, @03:23AM (#571978)

  "Arabic numerals?" Arabs adopted the Indian numerals, with some visual modification, and passed onto the West. In truth, it's Indian numerals with Arab contribution, not to take anything away from the Arabs' role in the event.

  And, if I recall correctly, in Arabic the term for the numbers means "Hindu numbers". They don't claim credit for that invention.

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