The Mathematician who gave us the digit zero - Brahmagupta
Forgotten Pride - Brahmagupta
We take great pride
in saying that Indians gave the digit zero to the world. But how many of us
know who actually gave that number? It was an ancient mathematician by the name
of Brahmagupta.
As the sun
eclipses the stars by its brilliancy, so the man of knowledge will eclipse the
fame of others in assemblies of the people if he proposes algebraic problems,
and still more if he solves them. A person who can, within a year, solve x2 -
92y2 = 1 is a mathematician. - Brahmagupta
(Picture sourced
from the web)
Brahmagupta was an expert in algebra, trigonometry,
astronomy, geometry and algorithms.
He lived in the 6th
century AD. Just look at the number of streams he had been good at. It shows
that these streams of knowledge existed in Bharath at that time.
He was born in 598
AD in Bhillamala which is today Bhinmal in the state of Rajasthan. He worked as
an astronomer in the Brahmapaksha school. The school was one of the most famous
astronomy schools at that time. Imagine Bharath had a school for astronomy in
the 6th century.
He studied the
works of the prevalent mathematicians and astronomers of that time like
Aryabhata I, Varahamirhira, Vishnuchandra, Simha and Sirisena.
He is credited with two important works
Brahmaphutasiddanta and Khandakhadyaka that covered both his core subjects of
mathematics and astronomy. The first one, which he wrote at the age of 30, was
supposed to have been his revised version of Siddantas.
Later he moved to Ujjain where he wrote
his second book Khandakhayaka which was supposed to be a practical handbook on
astronomy.
Contributions
1.
Brahmagupta-Fibonacci
identity
2.
Brahmagupta’s
formula
3.
Brahmagupta’s
identity
4.
Brahmagupta’s
interpolation formula
5.
Brahmagupta’s
problem
6.
Brahmagupta’s
theorem
7.
Modern
number system
Brahmagupta had observed and remarked upon gravity. Brahmagupta described
gravity as an attractive force. “Bodies falls towards the earth as it is in the
nature of the earth to attract bodies, just as it is in the nature of water to
flow.” This is a good 1100 years before Newton discovered gravity. He had observed
gravity using the term Gurutvakarshan.
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