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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 23 2017, @04:29PM (1 child)
i think the problem is that hiding behind handles and anonymity regarding scientific pursuits none of us can reasonably claim to have any claims to (being anonymous and all that) means the only way we can convince others is to
a: not use some bizzare ancient histories of mystery complete with spectacular claims to draw in the advertising revenue
b: use actual referenceable and cataloged data
c: avoid religion except for context; cultures may build similar pyramids to worship different gods or i guess store grain (but that is afoul of rule a and really so is he)
d: dont sound stupid
it is hard to do all of that and remain objective and professional, whilst presenting so in a dignified manner.
I prefer to believe that there was an ancient flood, many glaciers did melt and tip the climate beyond a point of no return due to regular natural cycles or volcanic eruptions or a mix of reasons that trapped heat,, which totally were not at the time enhanced by the burning of fossil fuels or ozone depleting chemicals, no gods were involved, but it damn near scared the pants off everybody enough to write it down and conserve it in oral histories.
There was no ark, lots of civilizations perished if they couldn't get to higher ground. but it makes some religions look good if they can say only they had someone within enough good graces of their god to save their people. Of course, it doesn't really reference what about everyone else that survived who never even heard of the religion making these claims (not until modern times at least--or at the end of a weapon) but those people simply just have strayed and need to convert back, I guess.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 24 2017, @10:53PM
I disagree. Floods are a universal human experience, even in the driest parts of the world (such as the Atacama Desert [wikipedia.org]). Oral tales frequently exaggerate events good and bad that humans experience. For example, there are a number of stories of Coyote stealing/eating the Sun and Moon. Should we then look for planet or star-sized canines?
Further, while we know that sea level rise has happened over the past 14k years, it has happened slowly. I doubt, aside from flooding events like the flooding of the Black Sea, that anyone has cared much about such things. They certainly wouldn't have much trouble staying ahead of the water, which might rise a centimeter a year for ten thousand years.