Bhaskara

From Freepedia

Bhāskara (1114-1185), also called Bhāskara II and BhāskarāAchārya ("Bhaskara the teacher") was an Indian mathematician. He was born near Bijjada Bida in Bijapur district, Karnataka and became head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, continuing the mathematical tradition of Varahamihira and Brahmagupta.

In many ways, Bhaskaracharya represents the peak of mathematical knowledge in the 12th century. He reached an understanding of the number systems and solving equations, which was not to be achieved anywhere else in the world for several centuries. His main works are the Lilavati (dealing with arithmetic), Bijaganita (algebra) and Siddhantasiromani which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets).

1 Contributions
2 Legend
3 See also
4 External links

Contributions

He conceived of differential calculus five centuries before Newton and Leibnitz, who are popularly considered to be its founders. An example of what is now called the derivative and the basic idea of what is now known as "Rolle's theorem" can be seen in his writings. (Madhava (1340 CE) and the Kerala school further advanced the development of calculus in India.)

He worked with the equation popularly attributed to Pell, several centuries before Pell.

He developed a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem by calculating the same area in two different ways and then canceling out terms to get a² + b² = c².

He is also known to have proven that anything divided by zero is infinity in addition to establishing that infinity divided by anything remains infinity.

In Surya Siddhanta, Bhaskaracharya calculates the time taken for the earth to orbit the sun to 9 decimal places.

Bhaskaracharya = 365.258756484 days.

Modern accepted measurement = 365.2596 days.

Between Bhaskaracharya’s ancient measurement 1500 years ago and the modern measurement the difference is only 0.00085 days, only 0.0002%.

Legend

Lilavati, his book on arithmetic, is the source of many interesting legends that assert that it was written for his daughter, Lilavati. As per one story, by studying Lilavati's horoscope, Bhaskara predicted that her husband would die soon after the marriage if the marriage did not take place at a particular time. To prevent that, he placed a cup with a small hole at the bottom of the 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 wrong time and she was widowed soon. Bhaskara is said to have taught her mathematics to console her in her grief and to have written the book for her.