Different cultures of computation in seventh century China from the viewpoint of square root extraction

DOI10.1016/J.HM.2015.03.002MaRDI QIDQ5962963zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Yiwen Zhu

Publication date 25 February 2016

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2015.03.002

zbMATH Keywords

history of Chinese mathematics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of Chinese mathematics (01A25)

Review text

Around the year 650, both Jia Gongyan and Li Chunfeng wrote mathematical commentaries. This article compares the two authors' respective presentations of the calculation of square roots. The author supplies the relevant texts in the original Chinese and in English translation, concluding that Li Chunfeng described a procedure carried out via counting rods, while Jia Gongyan's computational steps were of a geometric nature. The author infers the existence of distinct traditions of mathematical practice at play here.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(9)

• How has one, and how could have one approached the diversity of mathematical cultures?
• Scholars' recreation of two traditions of mathematical commentaries in late eighteenth-century China
• How do we understand mathematical practices in non-mathematical fields? Reflections inspired by cases from \(12^{\text{th}}\) and \(13^{\text{th}}\) century China
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1984491 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2058374 (Why is no real title available?)
• New methods for extracting square roots in the Yuan and Ming dynasties: the bridge connecting the traditional method for extracting square roots with counting rods and the method for extracting square roots with the abacus
• Similarities between Chinese and Arabic Mathematical Writings: (I) Root extraction
• The procedure of theSection of Pieces of Areasin Li Ye and Yang Hui’s works: genealogy of diagrams and equations
• Another culture of computation from seventh-century China

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