Aryabhata

.
ryabha a ( )

Statue of Aryabhata on the grounds of IUCAA, Pune. As there is no known information regarding his appearance, any image of Aryabhata originates from an artist's conception.

Born

476

Died

550

Era

Gupta era

Region

India

Main interests

math, astronomy

Major works

ryabha

ya, Arya-siddhanta

Aryabhata (IAST: ryabha a, Sanskrit: ) (476550 CE) was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His most famous works are the ryabha ya (499 CE, when he was 23 years old) and the Aryasiddhanta.

[
[edit] Birth
Aryabhata mentions in the Aryabhatiya that it was composed 3,600 years into the Kali Yuga, when he was 23 years old. This corresponds to 499 CE, and implies that he was born in 476 CE. Aryabhata provides no information about his place of birth. The only information comes from Bh skara I, who describes Aryabhata as mak ya, "one belonging to the a maka country." It is wi+++dely attested that, during the Buddha's time, a branch of the A maka people settled in the region between the Narmada and Godavari rivers in central India, today the South GujaratNorth Maharashtra region. Aryabhata is believed to have been born there.[1][2] However, early Buddhist texts describe Ashmaka as being further south, in dakshinapath or the Deccan, while other texts describe the Ashmakas as having fought Alexander,

[edit] Work
It is fairly certain that, at some point, he went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and that he lived there for some time.[3] Both Hindu and Buddhist tradition, as well as Bh skara I (CE 629), identify Kusumapura as P aliputra, modern Patna.[1] A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura, and, because the university of Nalanda was in Pataliputra at the time and had an astronomical observatory, it is speculated that Aryabhata might have been the head of the Nalanda university as well.[1]Aryabhata is also reputed to have set up an observatory at the Sun temple in Taregana, Bihar.[4]

[edit] Other hypotheses

It was suggested that Aryabhata may have been from Tamilnadu, but K. V. Sarma, an authority on Kerala's astronomical tradition, disagreed[1] and pointed out several errors in this hypothesis.[5] Aryabhata mentions "Lanka" on several occasions in the Aryabhatiya, but his "Lanka" is an abstraction, standing for a point on the equator at the same longitude as his Ujjayini.[6]

[edit] Works

Aryabhata is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are lost. His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature and has survived to modern times. The mathematical part of the Aryabhatiya covers arithmetic, algebra, plane trigonometry, and spherical trigonometry. It also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums-of-power series, and a table of sines. The Arya-siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical computations, is known through the writings of Aryabhata's contemporary, Varahamihira, and later mathematicians and commentators, including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya Siddhanta and uses the midnight-day reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya. It also contained a description of several astronomical instruments: the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a shadow instrument (chhAyA-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semicircular and circular (dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick yasti-yantra, an umbrella-shaped device called the chhatra-yantra, and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and cylindrical.[2] A third text, which may have survived in the Arabic translation, is Al ntf or Al-nanf. It claims that it is a translation by Aryabhata, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known. Probably dating from the 9th century, it is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of India, Ab Rayh n al-B r n .[2]

[edit] Place value system and zero

The place-value system, first seen in the 3rd century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work. While he did not use a symbol for zero, the French mathematician Georges Ifrah explains that knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhata'splace-value system as a place holder for the powers of ten with nullcoefficients[7] However, Aryabhata did not use the Brahmi numerals. Continuing the Sanskritic tradition from Vedic times, he used letters of the alphabet to denote numbers, expressing quantities, such as the table of sines in a mnemonic form.[8]

[edit] Approximation of
Aryabhata worked on the approximation for pi ( ), and may have come to the conclusion that is irrational. In the second part of the Aryabhatiyam (ga itap da 10), he writes: caturadhikam atama agu amdv a istath sahasr m ayutadvayavi kambhasy sannov ttapari ha . "Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a circle with a diameter of 20,000 can be approached."[9] This implies that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is ((4 + 100) 8 + 62000)/20000 = 62832/20000 = 3.1416, which is accurate to five significant figures.

It is speculated that Aryabhata used the word sanna (approaching), to mean that not only is this an approximation but that the value is incommensurable (or irrational). If this is correct, it is quite a sophisticated insight, because the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert.[10] After Aryabhatiya was translated into Arabic (c. 820 CE) this approximation was mentioned in Al-Khwarizmi's book on algebra.[2]

[edit] Trigonometry
In Ganitapada 6, Aryabhata gives the area of a triangle as tribhujasyaphalashariramsamadalakotibhujardhasamvargah that translates to: "for a triangle, the result of a perpendicular with the half-side is the area."[11] Aryabhata discussed the concept of sine in his work by the name of ardha-jya. Literally, it means "half-chord". For simplicity, people started calling it jya. When Arabic writers translated his works from Sanskrit into Arabic, they referred it as jiba. However, in Arabic writings, vowels are omitted, and it was abbreviated as jb. Later writers substituted it with jiab, meaning "cove" or "bay." (In Arabic, jiba is a meaningless word.) Later in the 12th century, when Gherardo of Cremona translated these writings from Arabic into Latin, he replaced the Arabic jiab with its Latin counterpart, sinus, which means "cove" or "bay". And after that, the sinus became sine in English.[12]

[edit] Algebra
In AryabhatiyaAryabhata provided elegant results for the summation of series of squares and cubes:[14]

and

[edit] Astronomy
Aryabhata's system of astronomy was called the audAyaka system, in which days are reckoned from uday, dawn at lanka or "equator". Some of his later writings on astronomy, which apparently proposed a second model (or ardha-rAtrikA, midnight) are lost but can be partly reconstructed from the discussion in Brahmagupta'skhanDakhAdyaka. In some texts, he seems to ascribe the apparent motions of the heavens to the Earth's rotation. He also treated the planet's orbits as elliptical rather than circular.[15][16]

[ [edit] Sidereal periods

Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars) as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds;[22] the modern value is 23:56:4.091. Similarly, his value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds (365.25858 days)[23] is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds over the length of a year (365.25636 days).[24]
y

Brahmagupta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search Brahmagupta (Sanskrit: ; ( listen(helpinfo)) (598668 CE) was an Indianmathematician and astronomer who wrote many important works on mathematics and astronomy. His best known work is the Br hmasphu asiddh nta (Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma), written in 628 in Bhinmal. Its 25 chapters contain several unprecedented mathematical results.

[edit] Life and work

Brahmagupta was born in 598 AD (it is believed) in Bhinmal city in the state of Rajasthan of Northwest India. In ancient times Bhillamala was the seat of power of the Gurjars. His father was Jisnugupta.[1] He likely lived most of his life in Bhillamala (modern Bhinmal in Rajasthan) during the reign (and possibly under the patronage) of King Vyaghramukha.[2] As a result, Brahmagupta is often referred to as Bhillamalacarya, that is, the teacher from Bhillamala. He was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, and during his tenure there wrote four texts on mathematics and astronomy: the Cadamekela in 624, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628, the Khandakhadyaka in 665, and the Durkeamynarda in 672. The Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Corrected Treatise of Brahma) is arguably his most famous work. The historian al-Biruni (c. 1050) in his book Tariq al-Hind states that the Abbasidcaliphal-Ma'mun had an embassy in India and from India a book was brought to Baghdad which was translated into Arabic as Sindhind. It is generally presumed that Sindhind is none other than Brahmagupta'sBrahmasphutasiddhanta.[3] Although Brahmagupta was familiar with the works of astronomers following the tradition of Aryabhatiya, it is not known if he was familiar with the work of Bhaskara I, a contemporary.[2]Brahmagupta had a plethora of criticism directed towards the work of rival

astronomers, and in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta is found one of the earliest attested schisms among Indian mathematicians. The division was primarily about the application of mathematics to the physical world, rather than about the mathematics itself. In Brahmagupta's case, the disagreements stemmed largely from the choice of astronomical parameters and theories.[2] Critiques of rival theories appear throughout the first ten astronomical chapters and the eleventh chapter is entirely devoted to criticism of these theories, although no criticisms appear in the twelfth and eighteenth chapters.[2]

[edit] Mathematics
Brahmagupta was the first to use zero as a number. He gave rules to compute with zero. Contrary to popular opinion, negative numbers did not appear first in Brahmasputasiddhanta. Negative numbers appear for the first time in history in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Jiuzhangsuan-shu) around 200 BC. Brahmagupta's most famous work is his Brahmasphutasiddhanta. It is composed in elliptic verse, as was common practice in Indian mathematics, and consequently has a poetic ring to it. As no proofs are given, it is not known how Brahmagupta's mathematics was derived.[4]

[edit] Algebra
Brahmagupta gave the solution of the general linear equation in chapter eighteen of Brahmasphutasiddhanta, The difference between rupas, when inverted and divided by the difference of the unknowns, is the unknown in the equation. The rupas are [subtracted on the side] below that from which the square and the unknown are to be subtracted.[5] Which is a solution equivalent to , where rupas represents constants. He further gave two equivalent solutions to the general quadratic equation, 18.44. Diminish by the middle [number] the square-root of the rupas multiplied by four times the square and increased by the square of the middle [number]; divide the remainder by twice the square. [The result is] the middle [number]. 18.45. Whatever is the square-root of the rupas multiplied by the square [and] increased by the square of half the unknown, diminish that by half the unknown [and] divide [the remainder] by its square. [The result is] the unknown.[5] Which are, respectively, solutions equivalent to,

and

He went on to solve systems of simultaneous indeterminate equations stating that the desired variable must first be isolated, and then the equation must be divided by the desired variable's coefficient. In particular, he recommended using "the pulverizer" to solve equations with multiple unknowns. 18.51. Subtract the colors different from the first color. [The remainder] divided by the first [color's coefficient] is the measure of the first. [Terms] two by two [are] considered [when reduced to] similar divisors, [and so on] repeatedly. If there are many [colors], the pulverizer [is to be used].[5] Like the algebra of Diophantus, the algebra of Brahmagupta was syncopated. Addition was indicated by placing the numbers side by side, subtraction by placing a dot over the subtrahend, and division by placing the divisor below the dividend, similar to our notation but without the bar. Multiplication, evolution, and unknown quantities were represented by abbreviations of appropriate terms.[6] The extent of Greek influence on this syncopation, if any, is not known and it is possible that both Greek and Indian syncopation may be derived from a common Babylonian source.[6]

Nb[edit] Arithmetic
Many cultures knew four fundamental operations. The way we do now based on Hindu arabic number system first appeared in Brahmasputasiddhanta. Contrary to popular opinion, the four fundamental operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) did not appear first in BrahmasputhaSiddhanta, but they were already known by the Sumerians at least 2500 BC. In BrahmasputhaSiddhanta, Multiplication was named Gomutrika. In the beginning of chapter twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Calculation, Brahmagupta details operations on fractions. The reader is expected to know the basic arithmetic operations as far as taking the square root, although he explains how to find the cube and cube-root of an integer and later gives rules facilitating the computation of squares and square roots. He then gives rules for dealing with five types of combinations of fractions, .[7] [edit] Zero Brahmagupta'sBrahmasphu asiddhanta is the very first book that mentions zero as a number, hence Brahmagupta is considered as the man who found zero. He gave rules of using zero with other numbers. Zero plus a positive number is the positive number etc. The Brahmasphutasiddhanta is the earliest known text to treat zero as a number in its own right, rather than as simply a placeholder digit in representing another number as was done by the Babylonians or as a symbol for a lack of quantity as was done by Ptolemy and the Romans. In , , , , and

chapter eighteen of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta describes operations on negative numbers. He first describes addition and subtraction, 18.30. [The sum] of two positives is positives, of two negatives negative; of a positive and a negative [the sum] is their difference; if they are equal it is zero. The sum of a negative and zero is negative, [that] of a positive and zero positive, [and that] of two zeros zero. [...] 18.32. A negative minus zero is negative, a positive [minus zero] positive; zero [minus zero] is zero. When a positive is to be subtracted from a negative or a negative from a positive, then it is to be added.[5] He goes on to describe multiplication, 18.33. The product of a negative and a positive is negative, of two negatives positive, and of positives positive; the product of zero and a negative, of zero and a positive, or of two zeros is zero.[5] But his description of division by zero differs from our modern understanding, 18.34. A positive divided by a positive or a negative divided by a negative is positive; a zero divided by a zero is zero; a positive divided by a negative is negative; a negative divided by a positive is [also] negative. 18.35. A negative or a positive divided by zero has that [zero] as its divisor, or zero divided by a negative or a positive [has that negative or positive as its divisor]. The square of a negative or of a positive is positive; [the square] of zero is zero. That of which [the square] is the square is [its] square-root.[5] Here Brahmagupta states that and as for the question of where he did not commit [10] himself. His rules for arithmetic on negative numbers and zero are quite close to the modern understanding, except that in modern mathematics division by zero is left undefined. [edit] Pythagorean triples In chapter twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta finds Pythagorean triples, 12.39. The height of a mountain multiplied by a given multiplier is the distance to a city; it is not erased. When it is divided by the multiplier increased by two it is the leap of one of the two who make the same journey.[8] or in other words, for a given length m and an arbitrary multiplier x, let a = mx and b = m + mx/(x + 2). Then m, a, and b form a Pythagorean triple.[8] [edit] Pell's equation Brahmagupta went on to give a recurrence relation for generating solutions to certain instances 2 2 of Diophantine equations of the second degree such as Nx + 1 = y (called Pell's equation) by

using the Euclidean algorithm. The Euclidean algorithm was known to him as the "pulverizer" since it breaks numbers down into ever smaller pieces.[11] The nature of squares: 18.64. [Put down] twice the square-root of a given square by a multiplier and increased or diminished by an arbitrary [number]. The product of the first [pair], multiplied by the multiplier, with the product of the last [pair], is the last computed. 18.65. The sum of the thunderbolt products is the first. The additive is equal to the product of the additives. The two square-roots, divided by the additive or the subtractive, are the additive rupas.[5] The key to his solution was the identity,[12]

which is a generalization of an identity that was discovered by Diophantus,

Using his identity and the fact that if (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) are solutions to the equations x Ny = k1 and x2 Ny2 = k2, respectively, then (x1x2 + Ny1y2,x1y2 + x2y1) is a solution to x2 Ny2 = k1k2, he was able to find integral solutions to the Pell's equation through a series of 2 2 equations of the form x Ny = ki. Unfortunately, Brahmagupta was not able to apply his 2 2 solution uniformly for all possible values of N, rather he was only able to show that if x Ny = k has an integral solution for k = 1, 2, or 4, then x2 Ny2 = 1 has a solution. The solution of the general Pell's equation would have to wait for Bhaskara II in c. 1150 CE.[12]

[edit] Geometry
[edit] Brahmagupta's formula

Diagram for reference Main article: Brahmagupta's formula

Brahmagupta's most famous result in geometry is his formula for cyclic quadrilaterals. Given the lengths of the sides of any cyclic quadrilateral, Brahmagupta gave an approximate and an exact formula for the figure's area, 12.21. The approximate area is the product of the halves of the sums of the sides and opposite sides of a triangle and a quadrilateral. The accurate [area] is the square root from the product of the halves of the sums of the sides diminished by [each] side of the quadrilateral.[8] So given the lengths p, q, r and s of a cyclic quadrilateral, the approximate area is while, letting , the exact area is

Although Brahmagupta does not explicitly state that these quadrilaterals are cyclic, it is apparent from his rules that this is the case.[13]Heron's formula is a special case of this formula and it can be derived by setting one of the sides equal to zero. [edit] Triangles Brahmagupta dedicated a substantial portion of his work to geometry. One theorem states that the two lengths of a triangle's base when divided by its altitude then follows, 12.22. The base decreased and increased by the difference between the squares of the sides divided by the base; when divided by two they are the true segments. The perpendicular [altitude] is the square-root from the square of a side diminished by the square of its segment.[8] Thus the lengths of the two segments are .

He further gives a theorem on rational triangles. A triangle with rational sides a, b, c and rational area is of the form:

for some rational numbers u, v, and w.[14] [edit] Brahmagupta's theorem Main article: Brahmagupta theorem

Brahmagupta's theorem states that AF = FD. Brahmagupta continues, 12.23. The square-root of the sum of the two products of the sides and opposite sides of a nonunequal quadrilateral is the diagonal. The square of the diagonal is diminished by the square of half the sum of the base and the top; the square-root is the perpendicular [altitudes].[8] So, in a "non-unequal" cyclic quadrilateral (that is, an isosceles trapezoid), the length of each diagonal is .

He continues to give formulas for the lengths and areas of geometric figures, such as the circumradius of an isosceles trapezoid and a scalene quadrilateral, and the lengths of diagonals in a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. This leads up to Brahmagupta's famous theorem, 12.30-31. Imaging two triangles within [a cyclic quadrilateral] with unequal sides, the two diagonals are the two bases. Their two segments are separately the upper and lower segments [formed] at the intersection of the diagonals. The two [lower segments] of the two diagonals are two sides in a triangle; the base [of the quadrilateral is the base of the triangle]. Its perpendicular is the lower portion of the [central] perpendicular; the upper portion of the [central] perpendicular is half of the sum of the [sides] perpendiculars diminished by the lower [portion of the central perpendicular].[8] [edit] Pi In verse 40, he gives values of , 12.40. The diameter and the square of the radius [each] multiplied by 3 are [respectively] the practical circumference and the area [of a circle]. The accurate [values] are the square-roots from the squares of those two multiplied by ten.[8] So Brahmagupta uses 3 as a "practical" value of , and as an "accurate" value of .

[edit] Measurements and constructions In some of the verses before verse 40, Brahmagupta gives constructions of various figures with arbitrary sides. He essentially manipulated right triangles to produce isosceles triangles, scalene triangles, rectangles, isosceles trapezoids, isosceles trapezoids with three equal sides, and a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. After giving the value of pi, he deals with the geometry of plane figures and solids, such as finding volumes and surface areas (or empty spaces dug out of solids). He finds the volume of rectangular prisms, pyramids, and the frustum of a square pyramid. He further finds the average depth of a series of pits. For the volume of a frustum of a pyramid, he gives the "pragmatic" value as the depth times the square of the mean of the edges of the top and bottom faces, and he gives the "superficial" volume as the depth times their mean area.[15]

[edit] Trigonometry
[edit] Sine table In Chapter 2 of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Planetary True Longitudes, Brahmagupta presents a sine table: 2.2-5. The sines: The Progenitors, twins; Ursa Major, twins, the Vedas; the gods, fires, six; flavors, dice, the gods; the moon, five, the sky, the moon; the moon, arrows, suns [...][16] Here Brahmagupta uses names of objects to represent the digits of place-value numerals, as was common with numerical data in Sanskrit treatises. Progenitors represents the 14 Progenitors ("Manu") in Indian cosmology or 14, "twins" means 2, "Ursa Major" represents the seven stars of Ursa Major or 7, "Vedas" refers to the 4 Vedas or 4, dice represents the number of sides of the tradition die or 6, and so on. This information can be translated into the list of sines, 214, 427, 638, 846, 1051, 1251, 1446, 1635, 1817, 1991, 2156, 2312, 1459, 2594, 2719, 2832, 2933, 3021, 3096, 3159, 3207, 3242, 3263, and 3270, with the radius being 3270.[17] [edit] Interpolation formula In 665 Brahmagupta devised and used a special case of the NewtonStirling interpolation formula of the second-order to interpolate new values of the sine function from other values already tabulated.[18] The formula gives an estimate for the value of a function f at a value a + xh of its argument (with h> 0 and 1 x 1) when its value is already known at a h, a anda + h. The formula for the estimate is:

where

is the first-order forward-difference operator, i.e.

[edit] Astronomy
It was through the Brahmasphutasiddhanta that the Arabs learned of Indian astronomy.[19] The famous Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur (712775) founded Baghdad, which is situated on the banks of the Tigris, and made it a center of learning. The caliph invited a scholar of Ujjain by the name of Kankah in 770 A.D. Kankah used the Brahmasphutasiddhanta to explain the Hindu system of arithmetic astronomy. Muhammad al-Fazari translated Brahmugupta's work into Arabic upon the request of the caliph. In chapter seven of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Lunar Crescent, Brahmagupta rebuts the idea that the Moon is farther from the Earth than the Sun, an idea which is maintained in scriptures. He does this by explaining the illumination of the Moon by the Sun.[20] 7.1. If the moon were above the sun, how would the power of waxing and waning, etc., be produced from calculation of the [longitude of the] moon? the near half [would be] always bright. 7.2. In the same way that the half seen by the sun of a pot standing in sunlight is bright, and the unseen half dark, so is [the illumination] of the moon [if it is] beneath the sun. 7.3. The brightness is increased in the direction of the sun. At the end of a bright [i.e. waxing] half-month, the near half is bright and the far half dark. Hence, the elevation of the horns [of the crescent can be derived] from calculation. [...][21] He explains that since the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, the degree of the illuminated part of the Moon depends on the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon, and this can be computed from the size of the angle between the two bodies.[20] Some of the important contributions made by Brahmagupta in astronomy are: methods for calculating the position of heavenly bodies over time (ephemerides), their rising and setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses.[22]Brahmagupta criticized the Puranic view that the Earth was flat or hollow. Instead, he observed that the Earth and heaven were spherical and that the Earth is moving. In 1030, the Muslim astronomerAbu al-Rayhan alBiruni, in his Ta'rikh al-Hind, later translated into Latin as Indica, commented on Brahmagupta's work and wrote that critics argued: "If such were the case, stones would and trees would fall from the earth."[23] According to al-Biruni, Brahmagupta responded to these criticisms with the following argument on gravitation: "On the contrary, if that were the case, the earth would not vie in keeping an even and uniform pace with the minutes of heaven, the pranas of the times. [...] All heavy things are attracted towards the center of the earth. [...] The earth on all its sides is the same; all people on earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of

the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow, that of fire to burn, and that of wind to set in motion The earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth."[24] About the Earth's gravity he said: "Bodies fall 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."[25]

BHASKARACHARYABh skara II

Bhaskara, also known as Bhaskara II and BhaskaraAch rya ("Bhaskara the teacher"), was an Indianmathematician and an astronomer. He was born near BijjadaBida which is in present day Bijapur district, Karnataka, India. Bhaskara was the head of an astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the leading mathematical center of ancient India. His predecessors in this post had included both the noted Indian mathematicians Brahmagupta and Varahamihira. He lived in the Sahyadri region.[1] Bhaskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. He has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India.[2] His main work was the SiddhantaSiromani,Sanskrit for "Crown of treatises,"[3] is divided into four parts called Lilavati , Bijaganita, Grahaganita and Goladhyaya.[4] These four sections deal with arithmetic, algebra, mathematics of the planets, and spheres respectively. Bhaskara's work on calculus predates Newton and Leibniz by half a millennium.[5][6] He is particularly known in the discovery of the principles of differential calculus and its application to astronomical problems and computations. While Newton and Leibniz have been credited with differential and integral calculus, there is strong evidence to suggest that Bhaskara was a pioneer in some of the principles of differential calculus. He was perhaps the first to conceive the differential coefficient and differential calculus.[7]

[edit] Family
Bhaskara was born into a family belonging to the Deshastha Brahmin community.[8] History records his great-great-great-grandfather holding a hereditary post as a court scholar, as did his son and other descendants. His father Mahesvara[1] was as an astrologer, who taught him mathematics, which he later passed on to his son Loksamudra. Loksamudra's son helped to set up a school in 1207 for the study of Bh skara's writings.[9]

[edit] Mathematics
Some of Bhaskara's contributions to mathematics include the following:

A proof of the Pythagorean theorem by calculating the same area in two different ways and then canceling out terms to get a + b = c. In Lilavati, solutions of quadratic, cubic and quarticindeterminate equations are explained. Solutions of indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax + b = y). Integer solutions of linear and quadratic indeterminate equations (Kuttaka). The rules he gives are (in effect) the same as those given by the Renaissance European mathematicians of the 17th century A cyclic Chakravala method for solving indeterminate equations of the form ax + bx + c = y. The solution to this equation was traditionally attributed to William Brouncker in 1657, though his method was more difficult than the chakravala method. The first general method for finding the solutions of the problem x ny = 1 (so-called "Pell's equation") was given by Bhaskara II.[10] Solutions of Diophantine equations of the second order, such as 61x + 1 = y. This very equation was posed as a problem in 1657 by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, but its solution was unknown in Europe until the time of Euler in the 18th century. Solved quadratic equations with more than one unknown, and found negative and irrational solutions. Preliminary concept of mathematical analysis. Preliminary concept of infinitesimalcalculus, along with notable contributions towards integral calculus. Conceived differential calculus, after discovering the derivative and differential coefficient. Stated Rolle'stheorem, a special case of one of the most important theorems in analysis, the mean value theorem. Traces of the general mean value theorem are also found in his works. Calculated the derivatives of trigonometric functions and formulae. (See Calculus section below.) In SiddhantaShiromani, Bhaskara developed spherical trigonometry along with a number of other trigonometric results. (See Trigonometry section below.)

y y

y y

[edit] Arithmetic

Bhaskara'sarithmetic text Lilavati covers the topics of definitions, arithmetical terms, interest computation, arithmetical and geometrical progressions, plane geometry, solid geometry, the shadow of the gnomon, methods to solve indeterminate equations, and combinations. Lilavati is divided into 13 chapters and covers many branches of mathematics, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and a little trigonometry and mensuration. More specifically the contents include:
y y y y y y y y

Definitions. Properties of zero (including division, and rules of operations with zero). Further extensive numerical work, including use of negative numbers and surds. Estimation of . Arithmetical terms, methods of multiplication, and squaring. Inverse rule of three, and rules of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Problems involving interest and interest computation. Indeterminate equations (Kuttaka), integer solutions (first and second order). His contributions to this topic are particularly important, since the rules he gives are (in effect) the same as those given by the renaissance European mathematicians of the 17th century, yet his work was of the 12th century. Bhaskara's method of solving was an improvement of the methods found in the work of Aryabhata and subsequent mathematicians.

His work is outstanding for its systemisation, improved methods and the new topics that he has introduced. Furthermore the Lilavati contained excellent recreative problems and it is thought that Bhaskara's intention may have been that a student of 'Lilavati' should concern himself with the mechanical application of the method.

[edit] Algebra
His Bijaganita ("Algebra") was a work in twelve chapters. It was the first text to recognize that a positive number has two square roots (a positive and negative square root). His work Bijaganita is effectively a treatise on algebra and contains the following topics:
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Positive and negative numbers. Zero. The 'unknown' (includes determining unknown quantities). Determining unknown quantities. Surds (includes evaluating surds). Kuttaka (for solving indeterminate equations and Diophantine equations). Simple equations (indeterminate of second, third and fourth degree). Simple equations with more than one unknown. Indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax + b = y). Solutions of indeterminate equations of the second, third and fourth degree. Quadratic equations. Quadratic equations with more than one unknown.

Operations with products of several unknowns.

Bhaskara derived a cyclic, chakravala method for solving indeterminate quadratic equations of the form ax + bx + c = y. Bhaskara's method for finding the solutions of the problem Nx + 1 = y (the so-called "Pell's equation") is of considerable importance.[10]

[edit] Trigonometry
The SiddhantaShiromani (written in 1150) demonstrates Bhaskara's knowledge of trigonometry, including the sine table and relationships between different trigonometric functions. He also discovered spherical trigonometry, along with other interesting trigonometrical results. In particular Bhaskara seemed more interested in trigonometry for its own sake than his predecessors who saw it only as a tool for calculation. Among the many interesting results given by Bhaskara, discoveries first found in his works include the now well known results for and :

[edit] Calculus
His work, the SiddhantaShiromani, is an astronomical treatise and contains many theories not found in earlier works. Preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus and mathematical analysis, along with a number of results in trigonometry, differential calculus and integral calculus that are found in the work are of particular interest. Evidence suggests Bhaskara was acquainted with some ideas of differential calculus. It seems, however, that he did not understand the utility of his researches, and thus historians of mathematics generally neglect this achievement. Bhaskara also goes deeper into the 'differential calculus' and suggests the differential coefficient vanishes at an extremum value of the function, indicating knowledge of the concept of 'infinitesimals'.[11]
y

There is evidence of an early form of Rolle's theorem in his work:

o

If

then

for some with

He gave the result that if then , thereby finding the derivative of sine, although he never developed the notion of derivatives.[12] o Bhaskara uses this result to work out the position angle of the ecliptic, a quantity required for accurately predicting the time of an eclipse. In computing the instantaneous motion of a planet, the time interval between successive positions of the planets was no greater than a truti, or a 133750 of a second, and his measure of velocity was expressed in this infinitesimal unit of time. He was aware that when a variable attains the maximum value, its differential vanishes. He also showed that when a planet is at its farthest from the earth, or at its closest, the equation of the centre (measure of how far a planet is from the position in which it is

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predicted to be, by assuming it is to move uniformly) vanishes. He therefore concluded that for some intermediate position the differential of the equation of the centre is equal to zero. In this result, there are traces of the general mean value theorem, one of the most important theorems in analysis, which today is usually derived from Rolle'stheorem. The mean value theorem was later found by Parameshvara in the 15th century in the LilavatiBhasya, a commentary on Bhaskara'sLilavati. Madhava (13401425) and the Kerala School mathematicians (including Parameshvara) from the 14th century to the 16th century expanded on Bhaskara's work and further advanced the development of calculus in India.

[edit] Astronomy
Using an astronomical model developed by Brahmagupta in the 7th century, Bhaskara accurately defined many astronomical quantities, including, for example, the length of the sidereal year, the time that is required for the Earth to orbit the Sun, as 365.2588 days[citation needed] which is same as in Suryasiddhanta. The modern accepted measurement is 365.2563 days, a difference of just 3.5 minutes. His mathematical astronomy text SiddhantaShiromani is written in two parts: the first part on mathematical astronomy and the second part on the sphere. The twelve chapters of the first part cover topics such as:
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Mean longitudes of the planets. True longitudes of the planets. The three problems of diurnal rotation. Syzygies. Lunar eclipses. Solar eclipses. Latitudes of the planets. Sunrise equation The Moon's crescent. Conjunctions of the planets with each other. Conjunctions of the planets with the fixed stars. The patas of the Sun and Moon.

The second part contains thirteen chapters on the sphere. It covers topics such as:
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Praise of study of the sphere. Nature of the sphere. Cosmography and geography. Planetary mean motion. Eccentricepicyclic model of the planets. The armillary sphere. Spherical trigonometry.

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Ellipse calculations.[citation needed] First visibilities of the planets. Calculating the lunar crescent. Astronomical instruments. The seasons. Problems of astronomical calculations.

[edit] Engineering
The earliest reference to a perpetual motion machine date back to 1150, when Bh skara II described a wheel that he claimed would run forever.[13] Bh skara II used a measuring device known as Yasti-yantra. This device could vary from a simple stick to V-shaped staffs designed specifically for determining angles with the help of a calibrated scale.[14]

[edit] Legends
His book on arithmetic is the source of interesting legends that assert that it was written for his daughter, Lilavati. In one of these stories, which is found in a Persian translation of Lilavati, Bhaskara II studied Lilavati's horoscope and predicted that her husband would die soon after the marriage if the marriage did not take place at a particular time. To alert his daughter at the correct time, he placed a cup with a small hole at the bottom of a vessel filled with water, arranged so that the cup would sink at the beginning of the propitious hour. He put the device in a room with a warning to Lilavati to not go near it. In her curiosity though, she went to look at the device and a pearl from her nose ring accidentally dropped into it, thus upsetting it. The marriage took place at the wrong time and she was soon widowed. Bhaskara II conceived the modern mathematical convention that when a finite number is divided by zero, the result is infinity. In his book Lilavati, he reasons: "In this quantity also which has zero as its divisor there is no change even when many [quantities] have entered into it or come out [of it], just as at the time of destruction and creation when throngs of creatures enter into and come out of [him, there is no change in] the infinite and unchanging [Vishnu]".[15]