The Haidao suanjing [Sea island mathematical manual], written by the Chinese mathematician Liu Hui in 263 a.d., consists of nine surveying problems whose solution schemes involve the use of right triangle theory and result in a variety of techniques and formulas for determining distances to inaccessible points. Liu's results were obtained through the use of a prototrigonometry based on the concept of chong cha. This paper presents a translation of the Haidao's mathematical exercises and solution formulas and considers some of the implications of this early mathematical work.相似文献
The Mathematical Intelligencer encourages comments about the material in this issue. Letters to the editor should be sent
to either of the editors-in-chief, Chandler Davis or Marjorie Senechal. 相似文献
Learning to use the new calculus in the late 17th century meant looking at quantities and configurations, and the relationships among them, in fundamentally new ways. In part, as Leibniz argued implicitly in his articles, the new concepts lay along lines established by Viète, Fermat, Descartes, and other “analysts” in their development of algebraic geometry and the theory of equations. But in part too, those concepts drew intuitive support from the new mechanics that they were being used to explicate and that was rapidly becoming the primary area of their application. So it was that the world machine that emerged from the Scientific Revolution could be both mechanically intelligible and mathematically transcendental. 相似文献
Conclusion Luca almost managed to pull it off. The truth is finally out that he was a scheming, ambitious man, capable of lying and plagiarism
in hopes of going down in history as a great mathematician. There are still those today who don’t want to recognize the “hide
of an ass covered with the noble skin of a lion” as just that. The important thing is that Piero has finally been given the
credit he deserves as one of the original mathematicians of the Renaissance, in addition to being one of the era’s great painters.
A final odd twist: we owe a debt of gratitude to Luca, for if hisDe divina proportione included whole sections 相似文献
