Ancient History Of Chinese Math Example

Ancient History Of Chinese Math Example Ancient History Of Chinese Math â€" Assignment Example > 10/03/08IntroductionThere are ancient drawings that indicate the knowledge of measurement and mathematics of ancient time which is based on the stars. Early attempts to quantify time have been found in various places in the world. For example, ochre rocks found in a cave in South Africa which date back to 70,000 B. C show some form of geometric patterns. Early counting has also been thought to have started with the women who kept the record of their biological functions. The knowledge of the Babylonian mathematics comes from clay tablets unearthed in 1850's. They were written in Cuneiform and the tablets were inscribed while the clay was still moist. Ancient Sumerian’s give us the evidence of written mathematics. The Sumerian's contributed greatly in building the ancient civilization in Mesopotamia. The purpose of the essay will be to explore the rise and development of ancient Chinese mathematics, its relations with the Egyptian, Greeks and the Islamic mathematics. In addition the essay will also focus on the benefit of ancient Chinese mathematics and why it was needed. The essay will have several subheadings or sections and it will also have a summary or conclusions of the whole argument at the end. Ancient Chinese MathematicsIn China mathematics emerged independently by 11th century B. C. Simple mathematics concepts which were inscribed in tortoise shells date back to the Shang Dynasty. The oldest surviving mathematical concepts and works is the I Ching. This influenced written literature to a larger extent during the reign of the Zhou Dynasty. The ancient Chinese mathematicians developed large negative numbers, a binary system, a decimal system geometry, calculus and decimals. Most scholars have held believe that ancient Chinese mathematics developed independently until the time when the nine chapters were completed. Various discoveries suggest that ancient Chinese mathematics predate the western mathematics. Pythagorean Theorem which is also called t he Pythagoras theorem is a good example of Chinese mathematics that predates the western mathematics. Controversy has ensued about the presence of such knowledge in China although evidence of Pythagorean science have been discovered in the oldest Classical Chinese texts called the King Wen sequence. This was a series of about sixty four binary figures which made a hexagram. Each comprised of 6 lines broken (yin) or unbroken (yang). This evidence show that the knowledge of Pythagoras theorem existed in ancient China. The ancient Chinese people were one of the most advanced mathematicians who created enormous numbers and mathematical computations. The evidence of the knowledge of Pascal triangle also existed in China long before the Pascal himself came up with the idea on the same. The focus was mostly on astronomy and making the calendar perfect and they were not so much concerned on establishing the proof. The oldest geometrical work in China came from the Mohist canon philosophy o f 330 B. C. This was compiled by the followers of Mozi in 470-390 B. C. This philosophy provided a wealth of information on mathematics and gave the atomic definition of a geometric point. It stated that a line is divided into several parts and that the line with no remaining parts can not be divided into other smaller parts. It also stated that the extreme end of the line was made up of a point. The Mo jing further explained that a point is the smallest unit and it can not be cut into halves since it is impossible to halve nothing. He also offered definitions of and comparison of parallels and lengths and explained that two lines of equal length always finish at the same place. The ancient Chinese geometrical mathematics also gave the fact that planes without the quality of thickness could not be piled up since they can not touch mutually. The Mo jing also gave several definitions of diameter, circumference, radius and volume. The nine chapters on mathematical Art is an ancient Ch inese mathematics book that is composed of generations of scholars in the 2nd and 1st centuries. The book laid down an approach to mathematics that centered on finding general methods of solving problems. The contents of the nine chapters include the following, Fang tian or the rectangular fields. In this chapter the work of finding the areas of various shapes and fields and manipulation of the vulgar fractions are found. The su mi chapter explains the pricing mode of different commodities and rice and millet were taken as the exchange commodities. Cui fen chapter explains the proportionality concepts. This includes the distribution of money and commodities at proportional rates. The Shao guang chapter describes extraction of cube roots and squares. The determination of volume of circles and sphere as well as the division by mixed numbers are also found in this chapter. The Shang gong chapter gave light into the determination of volumes of solids in various shapes. The Jun shu cha pter gives the light into solving problems on equitable taxation. The Ying bu zu chapter helped in solving linear problems. This chapter was later developed in the west and gave rise to the principle known as the rule of false position. The eighth chapter was the Fang cheng which provided an explanation into solving problems with several unknowns. This was later solved using similar principle in the west called the Gaussian elimination (Burton, 1997). The Gou gu chapter gave the principle of solving problem regarding base and altitude. The ancient mathematics in China was very important especially in construction. It was also used in astronomy field. The right angled triangles and the Pythagoras theorem were very important and prominent in Chinese writing. These were both in practical science and mathematical treatises. They grasped a lot of principles regarding the right-angled triangle and applied these principles to practical problems. In the later development of mathematics in China the Chinese performed calculations using very small bamboo counting rods. This led to the emergence and use of the rod numerals as well as a positioning system for writing numbers. The three main mathematicians were Zhen Luan in the 6th century, Li Chunfeng in the 7th century and Zhao Shang in the 3rd century. The original texts written by the three mathematicians were basic and had complex computations which were without any indications on how to solve problems. The Zhao bi used the knowledge of right angled triangles in order to explain the astronomy. His knowledge was also taken to offer the most ancient proof of Pythagoras theorem although this was refuted by many mathematicians. The Zhou bi astronomy followed the gai tian cosmology that stated that the heavens rotated above the earth since the earth is a flat plane. With this idea the sun’s height could be calculated using the gnomonic or the bi and its shadow. The idea of the shadow principle stated that for every 1 000 li located away from the shadow spot the eight chi gnomon shadow increased by one cun. Early illustration of similarity of two triangles was also done by the Chinese (Cooke, 1997).