book excerptise:   a book unexamined is not worth having

A history of mathematics: an introduction

Victor J. Katz

Katz, Victor J.;

A history of mathematics: an introduction

Addison-Wesley, 1998, 879 pages

ISBN 0321016181, 9780321016188

topics: |  mathematics | history


Mathematical myth: According to a story which appears in the work of a
Persian commentator, 
astrologers predicted that the daughter lIlAvatI of the
Indian mathematician bhAskara (1114-1185) would not wed. But her father,
being an expert astronomer and astrologer himself, divined the one lucky
moment for her marriage. The time was kept by a water clock, but shortly
before the exact hour, while Lilaavati was looking into the clock, a pearl
from her headdress accidentally dropped into the clock unnoticed and stopped
the flow of water. By the time it was discovered, the designated moment had
passed. To console his daughter, Bhaskara named the chapter on arithmetic of
his major work, the SiddhAntashiromaNi, after her. p. 192


amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail.com) 2011 Feb 18