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29. Březen 2004
Aryabhatta: The Great Indian Mathematician
Excerpts from a speech that I delivered on March 29, 2004 at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Few Americans are aware of the immense scientific contributions of India and China.
Albert Einstein wrote: “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”
The number zero was introduced by an Indian mathematician named Aryabhatta. We take the significance of the number zero for granted.
Yet, until one thousand five hundred (1500) years ago, mathematicians did not realize that it was necessary to include zero in their number system.
Today, the binary system of zeros and ones is the absolute cornerstone of computing.
It would have been impossible to develop computers based on the Roman system of numerals. Therefore, I argue that the introduction of zero into our number system is the greatest scientific achievement of all time.
It is difficult to disagree with the American writer Mark Twain, then, who said:
“India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.”
Yet, in the main, American history books omit the contributions of India. They omit the contributions of Arab scholars. They omit the contributions of China.
Posted by emeagwali at 29. Březen 2004 10:18
Comments
We have started a journal called philogosophia. It is about a "softest of software", systematically operating OS revealed by utilizing strings of O's (not 0's) and 1's -- meaning, respectively, "going away from" and "coming towards" -- as a means of representing hierarchies of the fluctuating ebbs and flows of any thing changing from x to y. Most of our work so far has been on working out how this IT paradigm is found in eastern and western and New Guinean religious & philosophical systems -- and perhaps in certain old and newer aspects of mathematics and science.
HOWEVER, considering your given name -- and as the African Great Spirit/Sky God, and Esu/Eshu, God of the Crossroads -- at least as much reflect a basic view of "any change from x to y as an exchange of x for y" -- perhaps you might want to contribute a paper?
Posted by: Yale Landsberg at 9. Srpen 2005 9:51
nothing
Posted by: vishal at 29. Září 2005 6:47