Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 15 submissions in the queue.

Five Ways Ancient India Changed the World – With Maths

posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 22 2017, @10:06PM   Printer-friendly
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?

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Five Ways Ancient India Changed the World – With Maths | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 50 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Friday September 22 2017, @11:44PM

    by Aiwendil (531) on Friday September 22 2017, @11:44PM (#571901) Journal

    With such a significant technical lead, how did they fall behind?

    Just a guess, but being between the imperial chinese empire (western han) and the persian empire had something to do with this?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2