A01=Kim Plofker
Addition
Approximation
Arithmetic
Arithmetic progression
Astrological sign
Astrology
Astronomer
Astronomy
Author_Kim Plofker
Brahmagupta
Buddhism
Calculation
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Celestial coordinate system
Celestial equator
Celestial sphere
Chronology
Circumference
Computation
Concrete number
Consonant
Deity
Diagonal
Diameter
Divisor
Epoch (reference date)
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Geometry
Gnomon
Grammar
Horoscope
Hypotenuse
Indian astronomy
Indian mathematics
Indian philosophy
Inference
Line segment
Literature
Mathematical notation
Mathematician
Mathematics
Mean longitude
Mean motion
Minute and second of arc
Month
Notation
Positional notation
Prime meridian
Proportion (architecture)
Proportionality (mathematics)
Prose
Pythagorean theorem
Quantity
Rectangle
Right triangle
Ruler
Sanskrit
Sanskrit literature
Scientific notation
Semicircle
Square root
Summation
Tithi
Trigonometric functions
Trigonometry
Uncertainty
Vedas
Vedic Mathematics (book)
Vedic period
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Year
Yuga
Product details
- ISBN 9780691120676
- Weight: 765g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 18 Jan 2009
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Based on extensive research in Sanskrit sources, Mathematics in India chronicles the development of mathematical techniques and texts in South Asia from antiquity to the early modern period. Kim Plofker reexamines the few facts about Indian mathematics that have become common knowledge--such as the Indian origin of Arabic numerals--and she sets them in a larger textual and cultural framework. The book details aspects of the subject that have been largely passed over in the past, including the relationships between Indian mathematics and astronomy, and their cross-fertilizations with Islamic scientific traditions. Plofker shows that Indian mathematics appears not as a disconnected set of discoveries, but as a lively, diverse, yet strongly unified discipline, intimately linked to other Indian forms of learning. Far more than in other areas of the history of mathematics, the literature on Indian mathematics reveals huge discrepancies between what researchers generally agree on and what general readers pick up from popular ideas.
This book explains with candor the chief controversies causing these discrepancies--both the flaws in many popular claims, and the uncertainties underlying many scholarly conclusions. Supplementing the main narrative are biographical resources for dozens of Indian mathematicians; a guide to key features of Sanskrit for the non-Indologist; and illustrations of manuscripts, inscriptions, and artifacts. Mathematics in India provides a rich and complex understanding of the Indian mathematical tradition. **Author's note: The concept of "computational positivism" in Indian mathematical science, mentioned on p. 120, is due to Prof. Roddam Narasimha and is explored in more detail in some of his works, including "The Indian half of Needham's question: some thoughts on axioms, models, algorithms, and computational positivism" (Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 28, 2003, 1-13).
Kim Plofker is visiting assistant professor of mathematics at Union College.
