Baudhayana: The Great Ancient Indian Mathematician
Baudhayana: The Great Ancient Indian Mathematician
We know about roots and Pythagoras theorem as we have studied it in our schools. While studying have you any where read about baudhayana?
I am damn sure you haven't. In this article we are gonna discuss about the unsung great ancient Indian mathematician.
Baudhayana one of our great ancient mathematician who contributed a lot to the world of mathematics. In Baudhāyana Sulbasūtra he mentioned about Pythagorean theorem, Circling the square and Square root of 2.
Sulbasutra is gem to the world of mathematics. Lets see what all contributions were made by Baudhayana in Baudhayana Sulbasūtra.
1.Pythagorean theorem:
The idea of Pythagoras theorem exist in the Baudhāyana Sulbasūtra. The Baudhāyana Sulba Sūtra states the rule referred to today in most of the world as the Pythagorean Theorem. The rule was known to a number of ancient civilizations, including also the Greek and the Chinese, and was recorded in Mesopotamia as far back as 1800 BCE.For the most part, the Sulbasūtra do not contain proofs of the rules which they describe. The rule stated in the Baudhāyana Sulba Sūtra is:
दीर्घचतुरश्रस्याक्ष्णया रज्जु: पार्श्र्वमानी तिर्यग् मानी च यत् पृथग् भूते कुरूतस्तदुभयं करोति ॥
This literally means A rope stretched along the length of the diagonal produces an area which the vertical and horizontal sides make together.
The diagonal and sides referred are those of a rectangle, and the areas are those of the squares having these line segments as their sides. Since the diagonal of a rectangle is the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed by two adjacent sides, the statement is seen to be equivalent to the Pythagorean theorem.
Ah! I guess this is a good piece of knowledge for you all. Now, let's move onto to the next contribution by Baudhāyana in Baudhāyana Sulbasūtra. It is square root of two.
Scroll through and read about it in detail.
2.Square Root of 2:
The Baudhāyana Sulba Sūtra states hiw to find out Square root of 2.
samasya dvikaraṇī. pramāṇaṃ tṛtīyena vardhayet tac caturthenātmacatustriṃśonena saviśeṣaḥ
The diagonal of a square. The measure is to be increased by a third and by a fourth decreased by the 34th. That is its diagonal approximately.
Conclusion:
We can conclude that concepts such as roots and Pythagoras theorem were introduced long back in india in Baudhāyana Sulbasūtra.
The modern mathematics we see today would not be possible without such valuable contributions by Indian mathematicians.
Baudhayana was one such mathematician who contributed to some important concepts such as root and Pythagoras theorem.
References:
www.wikipedia.com
Note:
This blog is written by Shubham Shah and this assignment is a submission for assessment at SVKM's Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics (Autonomous) under the guidance of Prof. Conrad Coelho.