According to a report at AlphaGalileo, medieval Indian scholars made a significant breakthrough in mathematics that is usually attributed to Newton:
A little known school of scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton – according to new research.
Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester says the ‘Kerala School’ identified the ‘infinite series ’- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350.
The discovery is currently - and wrongly - attributed in books to Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnitz at the end of the seventeenth centuries.
The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.
And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.
That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself. . . .
“The brilliance of Newton’s work at the end of the seventeenth century stands undiminished – [says Joseph] especially when it came to the algorithms of calculus.
“But other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him as they discovered the other great component of calculus- infinite series.
My local Chevron Quick Shop guy, Jaspal, can calculate tax in his head. No calculator or anything.. Ok, well it's not Quantum Mechanics but it was enough to impress me..
Posted by: Jake | August 14, 2007 at 06:45 AM