Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777-1855 Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss reportedly believed that there had been

only three 'epoch-making' mathematicians: Archimedes, Newton, and one of his own students. While there is puzzlement as to why Gauss would accord this singular honor to his student, many would Gauss himself, sometimes referred to as the "prince of mathematics", the rightful third member of his list. Gauss, a stickler for perfection, lived by the motto " pauca sed matura" (few but ripe). He published only a small portion of his work. It is from a scant 19 page diary, published only after Gauss's death, that many of the results he established during his lifetime were posthumously gleaned. Gauss is portrayed with one of his most important results -- the refutation of Euclid's fifth postulate, the 'parallel postulate', which posited that parallel lines would never meet. Gauss discovered that valid self-consistent geometries could be created in which the parallel postulate did not hold. These geometries came to be known as 'non-Euclidean geometries". The parallel lines which begin in the portrait of Euclid, end and meet in the portrait of Gauss, the two portraits also sharing a common color palette. Gauss chose not to publish his results in alternative geometries, and credit for the discovery of 'non-Euclidean geometry' was accorded to others (Bolyai, and Lobachevski) who arrived at similar results independently. In the Gauss portrait, above the parallel lines which meet, what has come to be known as "Gauss's Equation" (for the second derivatives of the radius vector r), is inscribed. Gauss did pioneering work on differential geometry (the specialized study of manifolds), which he did publish in Disquisition cica superticies curvas. Overlying Gauss's portrait the Gaussian distribution curve is incised. This probability distribution curve is commonly referred to as the " normal distribution" by statisticians, and, because of its curved flaring shape, as the "bell curve" by social scientists. The Gaussian distribution has found wide application in numerous experimental situations, where it describes the deviations of repeated measurements from the mean. It has the characteristics that positive and negative deviations are equally likely, and small deviations are much more likely than large deviations. Gauss is also known for Gaussian primes, Gaussian integers, Gaussian integration, and Gaussian elimination -- to name only a few of the achievements directly named after an individual who was, perhaps, the most gifted mathematician of all time.

Georg Cantor

1845 - 1918

Georg Cantor undertook the exploration of the "infinite", and developed modern theory on infinite sets. which remains conceptually challenging. Cantor's work provided an approach to problems that had beset mathematicians for centuries, including Zeno's ancient paradoxes. He gave the first clear and consistent definition of an infinite set. Cantor's image is flanked by the "Aleph", the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which Cantor used (accompanied by subscripts) in his descriptions of transfinite numbers -- quite simply numbers which were not finite. Cantor recognized and demonstrated that infinite sets can be of different sizes. He distinguished between countable and uncountable sets, and was able to prove that the set of all rational numbers Q is countable, while the set off all real numbers R is uncountable, and therefore, though both were infinite, R was strictly larger. Backing Cantor's image is a graphic generated from a "Cantor Set". A "Cantor Set" is an infinite set constructed using only the numbers between 0 and 1. A Cantor set is constructed by starting with a line of length 1, and removing the middle 1/3. Next, the middle 1/3 of each of the pieces that are left are removed, and then the middle 1/3 of the pieces that remain after that are removed. The set that remains after continuing this process forever is called the Cantor set. The Cantor set contains uncountably many points. The graphic set which backs Cantor's image began with an algorithm to generate the Cantor set, to which color was applied, and then universal operators related to color transition and magnification, ultimately resulting in a unique image whose essence was the Cantor set. The final problem which Cantor grappled with was the realization that there could be no set containing everything, since, given any set, there is always a larger set -- its set of subsets. Cantor came came to the conclusion that the Absolute was beyond man's reach, and identified this concept with God. In one of his last letters Cantor wrote: I have never proceeded from any 'Genus supermum' of the actual infinite. Quite the contrary, I have rigorously proved that there is absolutely no "Genus supremum' of the actual infinite. What surpasses all that is finite and transfinite is no 'Genus'; it is the single, completely individual unity in which everything is included, which includes the Absolute, incomprehensible to the human understanding. This is the Actus Purissimus, which by many is called God." - Georg Cantor

Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace 1815 - 1852 Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace aspired to be "an Analyst (& Metaphysician)", a title she presciently invented for herself at a time when the notion of "professional scientist" had not even taken full form. She not only met her expectations, but is generally regarded as the first person to anticipate the general purpose computer, and in many senses the world's first "computer programmer". A complex intellect, Ada was the daughter of the romantic poet Lord Byron -- who separated from her mother only weeks after Ada's birth, and never met his daughter Ada -and Annabella (Lady Byron), who was herself educated as both a mathematician and a poet. By the age of 8 Ada was adept at building detailed model boats. By the age of 13 she had produced the design for a flying machine. At the same time she was becoming an accomplished musician, learning to play piano, violin, and harp, and had a passion for gymnastics, dancing, and riding. Ada set her sights on meeting Mary Somerville, a mathematician who had translated the works of Laplace into English. And it was through her acquaintance with Mary Sommerville that, in 1834, Ada met Charles Babbage, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge -- a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton. Babbage was the inventor of a calculating machine known as the "Difference Engine", so-named because it operated based on the method of finite differences. Ada was struck by the "universality" of Babbage's ideas -something few others saw at the time. What was to become a life-long friendship blossomed, with correspondence that started with the topics of mathematics and logic, and burgeoned to include all manner of subjects. In 1834 Babbage had already begun planning for a new type of calculating machine -- the "Analytical Engine", conjecturing a calculating machine that could not only foresee, but act. When Babbage reported on his plans for this new "Analytical Engine" at a conference in Turin in 1841, one of the attendees, Luigi Menabrea, was so impressed that he wrote an account of Babbage's at lectures. Ada, then 27, married to the Earl of Lovelace, and the mother of three children under the age of eight, translated Menabrea's article from French into English. Babbage suggested she add her own explanatory notes. What emerged was "The Sketch of the Analytical Engine", published as an article in 1843, with Ada's notes being twice as long as the original material. It became the definitive work on the subject of what was to eventually

Ada's notes were divided into sections. Note A was not simply technical, but philosophical than technical, and it was in Note A that Ada anticipated what we would call a general purpose computer, suited to: "The Analytical Engine . is not merely adapted for tabulating ... but for developing and tabulating any function whatever. In fact the engine may be described as being the material expression of any indefinite function of any degree of generality and complexity ... " -from Note A In Note A, Ada writes about the Analytical Engine's potential to do anything we are able to instruct it to do -including, if it were properly provided with rules of harmony and composition, produce "scientific" music. "Again, it [the Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number , were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine ... Supposing for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent." - from Note A There is a poetry in Ada's comparison of the Analytical Engine and the Jaquard loom: "We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." Notes B through F delve into the functions and capabilities of the Analytical engine. Note D is particularly prescient. It sets out the method for calculating the Bernoulli number sequence, and is generally regarded as the first "computer program". Note G which includes a discussion of the future capabilities of the Analytical Engine, is a remarkable anticipation of the modern day computer: "The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate any thing. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. Its province is to assist us in making available what we are already acquainted with. ... It is likely to exert an indirect and reciprocal influence on science itself in another manner. For in so distributing and combining the truths and formulas of analysis ... the relations and the nature of many subjects in that science are necessarily thrown into new lights, and more profoundly investigated." - from Note G In 1852, Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, died from cervical cancer. She was 36 years old.

estate, beside her father whom she never met. Ada Byron's father, Lord Byron , had also died at age 36. It is reported that one of the last things he said was "Oh my poor dear child! My dear Ada! My god, could I but have seen her!" Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz -attributed to Lord Byron 1646 - 1716 Charles Babbage never completed a working model of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a philosopher, Difference Engine or the Analytical Engine. mathematician, physicist, jurist, and contemporary of Newton. He is considered one of the great thinkers of the One year after death and Edward Scheutz 17th century. He Ada's believed in aGeorge universe which followed a built a working model of the "Difference Engine" from one "pre-established harmony" between mind and matter, and of Babbage's original early designs. attempted to reconcile the existence of a material world with the existence of a supreme being. In 1980, the United States Department of Defense completed acentury new computer language. The twentieth philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell considered Leibniz's greatest claim to This advanced new computer language was named "Ada". fame to be his invention of the infinitesimal calculus -- a remarkable achievement considering that Leibniz was selftaught in mathematics. The Portrait of Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace Leibniz portrayed with integral notation from Ada isis portrayed inoverlaid a simple contemporary engraving. his calculus which he developed coincident with but independently of development of calculus. Ada's portrait isNewton's overlaid with a notation from the Notes she wrote in"Sketch of the Analytical Engine", which Although the historical record suggest that Newton anticipates the modern-day general purpose computer and developed his version of calculus first, Leibniz was the first modern computer programming. to publish. Unfortunately, what emerged was not fruitful collaboration, but a rancorous dispute thatechoes raged for The color scheme of the portrait of Ada that of decades English continental mathematicians Pascal,and the pitted other mathematician credited with being a supporting as the true inventor of the calculus, precursorNewton of modern computing. against continental mathematicians supporting Leibniz. Today, Leibniz and Newton are generally recognized as 'co-inventors' of the calculus. But Leibniz' notation for calculus was far superior to that of Newton, and it is the notation developed by Leibniz, including the integral sign and derivative notation, that is still in use today. Leibniz considered symbols to be critical for human understanding of all things. So much so that he attempted to develop an entire 'alphabet of human thought', in which all fundamental concepts would be represented by symbols which could be combined to represent more complex thoughts. Leibniz never finished this work. Leibniz, who had strong conceptual differences with Newton in other areas, notably with Newton's concept of absolute space, also develop bitter conceptual differences with Descartes over what was then referred to as the "fundamental quantity of motion", a precursor of the Law of Conservation of Energy. Much of Leibniz' work went unpublished during his lifetime. He died embittered, in ill health, and without achieving the considerable wealth, fame, and honor accorded to Newton. Leibniz' diverse writings -- philosophical, mathematical, historical, and political -- were resurrected and published in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

remains his towering legacy.

Archimedes of Syracuse 287 - 212 B.C.E. Archimedes of Syracuse is generally regarded as the greatest mathematician and scientist of antiquity, and widely considered, along with Newton and Gauss, as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Archimedes' inventions were diverse -- compound pulley systems, war machines used in the defense of Syracuse, and even an early planetarium. His major writings on mathematics included contributions on plane equilibriums, the sphere, the cylinder, spirals, conoids and spheroids, the parabola, "Archimedes Principle" of buoyancy, and remarkable work on the measurement of a circle. Archimedes is pictured with the methods he used to find an approximation to the area of a circle and the value of pi. Archimedes was the first to give a scientific method for calculating pi. to arbitrary accuracy. The method used by Archimedes -- the measurement of inscribed and circumscribed polygons approaching a 'limit" (described as 'exhaustion') -- was one of the earliest approaches to "integration". It preceded by more than a millennia Newton, Leibniz, and modern calculus. Archimedes was killed in the aftermath of the Battle of Syracuse -- a siege won by the Romans using war machines many of which had been invented by Archimedes himself. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier who likely had no idea who Archimedes was. At the time of his death Archimedes was reputedly sketching a geometry problem in the sand, his last words to the Roman soldier being "don't disturb my circles".

Little is known of Hipparchus's life, but he is known to have been born in Nicaea in Bithynia. The town of Nicaea is now called Iznik and is situated in north-western Turkey. Founded in the 4th Century BC, Nicaea lies on the eastern shore of Lake Iznik. Reasonably enough Hipparchus is often referred to as Hipparchus of Nicaea or Hipparchus of Bithynia and he is listed among the famous men of Bithynia by Strabo, the Greek geographer and historian who lived from about 64 BC to about 24 AD. There are coins from Nicaea which depict Hipparchus sitting looking at a globe and his image appears on coins minted under five different Roman emperors between 138 AD and 253 AD. This seems to firmly place Hipparchus in Nicaea and indeed Ptolemy does describe Hipparchus as observing in Bithynia, and one would naturally assume that in fact he was observing in Nicaea. However, of the observations which are said to have been made by

Hipparchus, some were made in the north of the island of Rhodes and several (although only one is definitely due to Hipparchus himself) were made in Alexandria. If these are indeed as they appear we can say with certainty that Hipparchus was in Alexandria in 146 BC and in Rhodes near the end of his career in 127 BC and 126 BC. It is not too unusual to have few details of the life of a Greek mathematician, but with Hipparchus the position is a little unusual for, despite Hipparchus being a mathematician and astronomer of major importance, we have disappointingly few definite details of his work. Only one work by Hipparchus has survived, namely Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus and this is certainly not one of his major works. It is however important in that it gives us the only source of Hipparchus's own writings. Most of the information which we have about the work of Hipparchus comes from Ptolemy's Almagest but, as Toomer writes in [1]:... although Ptolemy obviously had studied Hipparchus's writings thoroughly and had a deep respect for his work, his main concern was not to transmit it to posterity but to use it and, where possible, improve upon it in constructing his own astronomical system. Where one might hope for more information about Hipparchus would be in the commentaries on Ptolemy's Almagest. There are two in particular by the excellent commentators Theon of Alexandria and by Pappus, but unfortunately these follow Ptolemy's text fairly closely and fail to add the expected information about Hipparchus. Since when Ptolemy refers to results of Hipparchus he does so often in an obscure way, at least he seems to assume that the reader will have access to the original writings by Hipparchus, and it is certainly surprising that neither Theon or Pappus fills in the details. One can only assume that neither of them had access to the information about Hipparchus on which we would have liked them to report. Let us first summarise the main contribution of Hipparchus and then examine them in more detail. He made an early contribution to trigonometry producing a table of chords, an early example of a trigonometric table; indeed some historians go so far as to say that trigonometry was invented by him. The purpose of this table of chords was to give a method for solving triangles which avoided solving each triangle from first principles. He also introduced the division of a circle into 360 degrees into Greece. Hipparchus calculated the length of the year to within 6.5 minutes and discovered the precession of the equinoxes. Hipparchus's value of 46" for the annual precession is good compared with the modern value of 50.26" and much better than the figure of 36" that Ptolemy was to obtain nearly 300 years later. We believe that Hipparchus's star catalogue contained about 850 stars, probably not listed in a systematic coordinate system but using various different ways to designate the position of a star. His star catalogue, probably completed in 129 BC, has been claimed to have been used by Ptolemy as the basis of his own star catalogue. However, Vogt shows clearly in his important paper [26] that by considering the Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus and making the reasonable assumption that the data given there agreed with his star catalogue, then Ptolemy's star

catalogue cannot have been produced from the positions of the stars as given by Hipparchus. This last point shows that in any detailed discussion of the achievements of Hipparchus we have to delve more deeply than just assuming that everything in the Ptolemy's Almagest which he does not claim as his own must be due to Hipparchus. This view was taken for many years but since Vogt's 1925 paper [26] there has been much research done trying to ascertain exactly what Hipparchus achieved. So major shifts have taken place in our understanding of Hipparchus, first it was assumed that his discoveries were all set out by Ptolemy, then once it was realised that this was not so there was a feeling that it would be impossible to ever have detailed knowledge of his achievements, but now we are in a third stage where it is realised that it is possible to gain a good knowledge of his work but only with much effort and research. Let us begin our detailed description of Hipparchus's achievements by looking at the only work which has survived. Hipparchus's Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus was written in three books as a commentary on three different writings. Firstly there was a treatise by Eudoxus (unfortunately now lost) in which he named and described the constellations. Aratus wrote a poem called Phaenomena which was based on the treatise by Eudoxus and proved to be a work of great popularity. This poem has survived and we have its text. Thirdly there was commentary on Aratus by Attalus of Rhodes, written shortly before the time of Hipparchus. It is certainly unfortunate that of all of the writings of Hipparchus this was the one to survive since the three books on which Hipparchus was writing a commentary contained no mathematical astronomy. As a result of this Hipparchus chose to write at the same qualitative level in the first book and also for much of the second of his three book. However towards the end of the second book, continuing through the whole of the third book, Hipparchus gives his own account of the rising and setting of the constellations. Towards the end of Book 3 Hipparchus gives a list of bright stars always visible for the purpose of enabling the time at night to be accurately determined. As we noted above Hipparchus does not use a single consistent coordinate system to denote stellar positions, rather using a mixture of different coordinates. He uses some equatorial coordinates, although often in a rather strange way as for example saying that a star (see [1]):... occupies three degrees of Leo along its parallel circle... He has therefore divided each small circle parallel to the equator into 12 portions of 30 each and this means that the right ascension of the star referred to in the quotation is 123. The data in the Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus has been analysed by many authors. In particular the authors of [15] argue that Hipparchus used a mobile celestial sphere with the stars pictured on the sphere. They claim that the data was taken from on a star catalogue constructed around 140 BC based on observations accurate to a third of a degree or even better. In the earlier work [16] by the same authors, they suggest that the observations were made at a latitude of 36 15' which corresponds to that of northern

Rhodes. This would tend to confirm that this work by Hipparchus was done near the end of his career. As Toomer writes in [1]:Far from being a "work of his youth", as it is frequently described, the commentary on Aratus reveals Hipparchus as one who had already compiled a large number of observations, invented methods for solving problems in spherical astronomy, and developed the highly significant idea of mathematically fixing the positions of the stars... There is of course no agreement on many of the points discussed here. For example Maeyama in [13] sees major differences between the accuracy of the data in Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus (claimed to be written around 140 BC) and Hipparchus's star catalogue (claimed to be produced around 130 BC). Maeyama writes [13]:... Hipparchus's "Commentary" contains his own observations of the stellar positions, great in number but inaccurate in operation, despite all his ability for accurate observations. ... the observational accuracy [of] his two different epochs have nothing in common, as if they dealt with two different observers. Within an interval of 10 years everything can happen, particularly in the case of a man like Hipparchus. Those views which consider Hipparchus's astronomical activities at his two different epochs as similar are completely unfounded. Perhaps the discovery for which Hipparchus is most famous is the discovery of precession which is due to the slow change in direction of the axis of rotation of the earth. This work came from Hipparchus's attempts to calculate the length of the year with a high degree of accuracy. There are two different definitions of a 'year' for one might take the time that the sun takes to return to the same place amongst the fixed stars or one could take the length of time before the seasons repeated which is a length of time defined by considering the equinoxes. The first of these is called the sidereal year while the second is called the tropical year. Of course the data needed by Hipparchus to calculate the length of these two different years was not something that he could find over a few years of observations. Swerdlow [20] suggests that Hipparchus calculated the length of the tropical year using Babylonian data to arrive at the value of 1/300 of a day less than 3651/4 days. He then checked this against observations of equinoxes and solstices including his own data and those of Aristarchus in 280 BC and Meton in 432 BC. Hipparchus also calculated the length of the sidereal year, again using older Babylonian data, and arrived at the highly accurate figure of 1/144 days longer than 3651/4 days. This gives his rate of precession of 1 per century. Hipparchus also made a careful study of the motion of the moon. There are difficult problems in such a study for there are three different periods which one could determine. There is the time taken for the moon to return to the same longitude, the time taken for it to return to the same velocity (the anomaly) and the time taken for it to return to the same latitude. In addition there is the synodic month, that is the time between successive oppositions of the sun and moon. Toomer [22] writes:-

For his lunar theory [Hipparchus] needed to establish the mean motions of the Moon in longitude, anomaly and latitude. The best data available to him were the Babylonian parameters. But he was not content merely to accept them: he wanted to test them empirically, and so he constructed (purely arithmetically) the eclipse period of 126007 days 1 hour, then looked in the observational material available to him for pairs of eclipses which would confirm that this was indeed an eclipse period. The observations thus played a real role, but that role was not discovery, but confirmation. In calculating the distance of the moon, Hipparchus not only made excellent use of both mathematical techniques and observational techniques but he also gave a range of values within which be calculated that the true distance must lie. Although Hipparchus's treatise On sizes and distances has not survived details given by Ptolemy, Pappus, and others allow us to reconstruct his methods and results. The reconstruction of Hipparchus's techniques is beautifully presented in [24] where the author shows that Hipparchus based his calculations on an eclipse which occurred on 14 March 190 BC. Hipparchus's calculations led him to a value for the distance to the moon of between 59 and 67 earth radii which is quite remarkable (the correct distance is 60 earth radii). The main reason for his range of values was that he was unable to determine the parallax of the sun, only managing to give an upper value. Hipparchus appears to know that 67 earth radii for the distance of the moon comes from this upper limit of solar parallax, while the lower value of 59 earth radii corresponds to the sun being at infinity. Hipparchus not only gave observational data for the moon which enabled him to compute accurately the various periods, but he developed a theoretical model of the motion of the moon based on epicycles. He showed that his model did not agree totally with observations but it seems to be Ptolemy who was the first to correct the model to take these discrepancies into account. Hipparchus was also able to give an epicycle model for the motion of the sun (which is easier), but he did not attempt to give an epicycle model for the motion of the planets. Finally let us examine the contributions which Hipparchus made to trigonometry. Heath writes in [6]:Even if he did not invent it, Hipparchus is the first person whose systematic use of trigonometry we have documentary evidence. The documentary evidence comes from Ptolemy and Theon of Alexandria who explicitly says that Hipparchus wrote a work on chords in 12 books. However, Neugebauer [7] points out that:... this number is obvious nonsense since 13 books sufficed for the whole of the "Almagest" or of Euclid's "Elements"... Toomer ([1] or [23]) reconstructs Hipparchus's table of chords, and the mathematical means by which Hipparchus calculated it. The table was based on a circle divided into

360 degrees with each degree divided into 60 minutes. The radius of the circle is then 360.60/2 = 3438 minutes and the chord function Crd of Hipparchus is related to the sine function by (Crd 2a)/2 = 3438 sin a. Toomer claims that Hipparchus defined his Crd function at 7.5 intervals (1/48 of the circle) and used linear interpolation to find the value at intermediate points. He then goes on to show that the table can be computed from some basic formulae which would be known to Hipparchus, one of which is the supplementary angle theorem, essentially Pythagoras's theorem, and the half-angle theorem. The only trace of Hipparchus's tables that survives is in Indian tables which are thought to have been based on that of that of Hipparchus. Toomer summarises the contributions of Hipparchus in this area when he writes in [1]:... it seems highly probable that Hipparchus was the first to construct a table of chords and thus provide a general solution for trigonometrical problems. A corollary of this is that, before Hipparchus, astronomical tables based on Greek geometrical methods did not exist. If this is so, Hipparchus was not only the founder of trigonometry but also the man who transformed Greek astronomy from a purely theoretical into a practical predictive science. Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson Click on this link to see a list of the Glossary entries for this page

Geometry, trigonometry, and other mathematical techniques

Hipparchus is recognized as the first mathematician known to have possessed a trigonometry table, which he needed when computing the eccentricity of the orbits of the Moon and Sun. He tabulated values for the chord function, which gives the length of the chord for each angle. He did this for a circle with a circumference of 21,600 and a radius (rounded) of 3438 units: this circle has a unit length of 1 arc minute along its perimeter. He tabulated the chords for angles with increments of 7.5. In modern terms, the chord of an angle equals twice the sine of half of the angle, i.e.: chord(A) = 2 sin(A/2). He described the chord table in a work, now lost, called Tn en kukli euthein (Of Lines Inside a Circle) by Theon of Alexandria (4th century) in his commentary on the Almagest I.10; some claim his table may have survived in astronomical treatises in India, for instance the Surya Siddhanta. Trigonometry was a significant innovation, because it allowed Greek astronomers to solve any triangle, and made it possible to make quantitative astronomical models and predictions using their preferred geometric techniques.[8] For his chord table Hipparchus must have used a better approximation for than the one from Archimedes of between 3 + 1/7 and 3 + 10/71; perhaps he had the one later used by Ptolemy: 3;8:30 (sexagesimal) (Almagest VI.7); but it is not known if he computed an improved value himself. Hipparchus could construct his chord table using the Pythagorean theorem and a theorem known to Archimedes. He also might have developed and used the theorem in plane geometry called Ptolemy's theorem, because it was proved by Ptolemy in his Almagest (I.10) (later elaborated on by Carnot). Hipparchus was the first to show that the stereographic projection is conformal, and that it transforms circles on the sphere that do not pass through the center of projection to circles on the plane. This was the basis for the astrolabe. Besides geometry, Hipparchus also used arithmetic techniques developed by the Chaldeans. He was one of the first Greek mathematicians to do this, and in this way expanded the techniques available to astronomers and geographers. There are several indications that Hipparchus knew spherical trigonometry, but the first surviving text of it is that of Menelaus of Alexandria in the 1st century, who on that basis is now commonly credited with its discovery. (Previous to the finding of the proofs of Menelaus a century ago, Ptolemy was credited with the invention of spherical trigonometry.) Ptolemy later used spherical trigonometry to compute things like the rising and setting points of the ecliptic, or to take account of the lunar parallax. Hipparchus may

have used a globe for these tasks, reading values off coordinate grids drawn on it, or he may have made approximations from planar geometry, or perhaps used arithmetical approximations developed by the Chaldeans. Or perhaps he used spherical trigonometry.

Bhaskara (1114 1185) (also known as Bhaskara II and Bhaskara Achrya ("Bhaskara the teacher")) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. He was born near Bijjada Bida (in present day Bijapur district, Karnataka state, South India) into the Deshastha Brahmin family. Bhaskara was head of an astronomical observatory at Ujjain, the leading mathematical centre of ancient India. His predecessors in this post had included both the noted Indian mathematician Brahmagupta (598c. 665) and Varahamihira. He lived in the Sahyadri region of Western Maharashtra. It has been recorded that his great-great-great-grandfather held a hereditary post as a court scholar, as did his son and other descendants. His father Mahesvara was as an astrologer, who taught him mathematics, which he later passed on to his son Loksamudra. Loksamudra's son helped to set up a school in 1207 for the study of Bhskara's writings.[1] Bhaskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. His main works were the Lilavati (dealing with arithmetic), Bijaganita (Algebra) and Siddhanta Shiromani (written in 1150) which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets).

[edit] Legends
His book on arithmetic is the source of interesting legends that assert that it was written for his daughter, Lilavati. In one of these stories, which is found in a Persian translation of Lilavati, Bhaskara II studied Lilavati's horoscope and predicted that her husband would die soon after the marriage if the marriage did not take place at a particular time. To alert his daughter at the correct time, he placed a cup with a small hole at the bottom of a vessel filled with water, arranged so that the cup would sink at the beginning of the propitious hour. He put the device in a room with a warning to Lilavati to not go near it. In her curiosity though, she went to look at the device and a pearl from her nose ring accidentally dropped into it, thus upsetting it. The marriage took place at the wrong time and she was soon widowed. Bhaskara II conceived the modern mathematical convention that when a finite number is divided by zero, the result is infinity. In his book Lilavati, he reasons: "In this quantity also which has zero as its divisor there is no change even when many [quantities] have entered into it or come out [of it], just as at the time of destruction and creation when throngs of creatures enter into and come out of [him, there is no change in] the infinite and unchanging [Vishnu]". (Ref. Arithmetic and mensuration of Brahmegupta and Bhaskara, H.T Colebrooke, 1817).

[edit] Mathematics
Some of Bhaskara's contributions to mathematics include the following:

A proof of the Pythagorean theorem by calculating the same area in two different ways and then canceling out terms to get a + b = c. In Lilavati, solutions of quadratic, cubic and quartic indeterminate equations. Solutions of indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax + b = y). Integer solutions of linear and quadratic indeterminate equations (Kuttaka). The rules he gives are (in effect) the same as those given by the Renaissance European mathematicians of the 17th century A cyclic Chakravala method for solving indeterminate equations of the form ax + bx + c = y. The solution to this equation was traditionally attributed to William Brouncker in 1657, though his method was more difficult than the chakravala method. His method for finding the solutions of the problem x ny = 1 (so-called "Pell's equation") is of considerable interest and importance. Solutions of Diophantine equations of the second order, such as 61x + 1 = y. This very equation was posed as a problem in 1657 by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, but its solution was unknown in Europe until the time of Euler in the 18th century. Solved quadratic equations with more than one unknown, and found negative and irrational solutions. Preliminary concept of mathematical analysis. Preliminary concept of infinitesimal calculus, along with notable contributions towards integral calculus. Conceived differential calculus, after discovering the derivative and differential coefficient. Stated Rolle's theorem, a special case of one of the most important theorems in analysis, the mean value theorem. Traces of the general mean value theorem are also found in his works. Calculated the derivatives of trigonometric functions and formulae. (See Calculus section below.)

In Siddhanta Shiromani, Bhaskara developed spherical trigonometry along with a number of other trigonometric results. (See Trigonometry section below.)

[edit] Arithmetic
Bhaskara's arithmetic text Lilavati covers the topics of definitions, arithmetical terms, interest computation, arithmetical and geometrical progressions, plane geometry, solid geometry, the shadow of the gnomon, methods to solve indeterminate equations, and combinations. Lilavati is divided into 13 chapters and covers many branches of mathematics, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and a little trigonometry and mensuration. More specifically the contents include:

Definitions. Properties of zero (including division, and rules of operations with zero). Further extensive numerical work, including use of negative numbers and surds. Estimation of . Arithmetical terms, methods of multiplication, and squaring. Inverse rule of three, and rules of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Problems involving interest and interest computation. Arithmetical and geometrical progressions. Plane (geometry). Solid geometry. Permutations and combinations. Indeterminate equations (Kuttaka), integer solutions (first and second order). His contributions to this topic are particularly important, since the rules he gives are (in effect) the same as those given by the renaissance European mathematicians of the 17th century, yet his work was of the 12th century. Bhaskara's method of solving was an improvement of the methods found in the work of Aryabhata and subsequent mathematicians.

His work is outstanding for its systemisation, improved methods and the new topics that he has introduced. Furthermore the Lilavati contained excellent recreative problems and it is thought that Bhaskara's intention may have been that a student of 'Lilavati' should concern himself with the mechanical application of the method.

[edit] Algebra
His Bijaganita ("Algebra") was a work in twelve chapters. It was the first text to recognize that a positive number has two square roots (a positive and negative square root). His work Bijaganita is effectively a treatise on algebra and contains the following topics:

Positive and negative numbers. Zero.

The 'unknown' (includes determining unknown quantities). Determining unknown quantities. Surds (includes evaluating surds). Kuttaka (for solving indeterminate equations and Diophantine equations). Simple equations (indeterminate of second, third and fourth degree). Simple equations with more than one unknown. Indeterminate quadratic equations (of the type ax + b = y). Solutions of indeterminate equations of the second, third and fourth degree. Quadratic equations. Quadratic equations with more than one unknown. Operations with products of several unknowns.

Bhaskara derived a cyclic, chakravala method for solving indeterminate quadratic equations of the form ax + bx + c = y. Bhaskara's method for finding the solutions of the problem Nx + 1 = y (the so-called "Pell's equation") is of considerable importance. He gave the general solutions of:

Pell's equation using the chakravala method. The indeterminate quadratic equation using the chakravala method.

He also solved[citation needed]:

Cubic equations. Quartic equations. Indeterminate cubic equations. Indeterminate quartic equations. Indeterminate higher-order polynomial equations.

[edit] Trigonometry
The Siddhanta Shiromani (written in 1150) demonstrates Bhaskara's knowledge of trigonometry, including the sine table and relationships between different trigonometric functions. He also discovered spherical trigonometry, along with other interesting trigonometrical results. In particular Bhaskara seemed more interested in trigonometry for its own sake than his predecessors who saw it only as a tool for calculation. Among the many interesting results given by Bhaskara, discoveries first found in his works include the now well known results for and :

[edit] Calculus
His work, the Siddhanta Shiromani, is an astronomical treatise and contains many theories not found in earlier works. Preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus and mathematical analysis, along with a number of results in trigonometry, differential calculus and integral calculus that are found in the work are of particular interest.

Evidence suggests Bhaskara was acquainted with some ideas of differential calculus. It seems, however, that he did not understand the utility of his researches, and thus historians of mathematics generally neglect this achievement. Bhaskara also goes deeper into the 'differential calculus' and suggests the differential coefficient vanishes at an extremum value of the function, indicating knowledge of the concept of 'infinitesimals'.[2]

There is evidence of an early form of Rolle's theorem in his work: o If then for some with He gave the result that if then , thereby finding the derivative of sine, although he never developed the general concept of differentiation.[3] o Bhaskara uses this result to work out the position angle of the ecliptic, a quantity required for accurately predicting the time of an eclipse. In computing the instantaneous motion of a planet, the time interval between successive positions of the planets was no greater than a truti, or a 133750 of a second, and his measure of velocity was expressed in this infinitesimal unit of time. He was aware that when a variable attains the maximum value, its differential vanishes. He also showed that when a planet is at its farthest from the earth, or at its closest, the equation of the centre (measure of how far a planet is from the position in which it is predicted to be, by assuming it is to move uniformly) vanishes. He therefore concluded that for some intermediate position the differential of the equation of the centre is equal to zero. In this result, there are traces of the general mean value theorem, one of the most important theorems in analysis, which today is usually derived from Rolle's theorem. The mean value theorem was later found by Parameshvara in the 15th century in the Lilavati Bhasya, a commentary on Bhaskara's Lilavati.

Madhava (1340-1425) and the Kerala School mathematicians (including Parameshvara) from the 14th century to the 16th century expanded on Bhaskara's work and further advanced the development of calculus in India.

[edit] Astronomy
The study of astronomy in Bhaskara's works is based on a model of the solar system which is heliocentric and whose movements are determined by gravitation. Heliocentrism had been propounded in 499 by Aryabhata, who argued that the planets follow elliptical orbits around the Sun. A law of gravity had been described by Brahmagupta in the 7th century. Using this model, Bhaskara accurately defined many astronomical quantities, including, for example, the length of the sidereal year, the time that is required for the Earth to orbit the Sun, as 365.2588 days which is same as in Suryasiddhanta. The modern accepted measurement is 365.2563 days, a difference of just 3.5 minutes. This result was

achieved using observations that had been made with only the naked eye, without any sophisticated instrument

bhaskara

Brahmagupta ( listen (helpinfo)) (598668) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. Brahmagupta, whose father was Jisnugupta, wrote important works on mathematics and astronomy. In particular he wrote Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma), in 628. The work was written in 25 chapters and Brahmagupta tells us in the text that he wrote it at Bhillamala which today is the city of Bhinmal. This was the capital of the lands ruled by the Gurjara dynasty.

Life and work

Brahmagupta was born in 598 CE in Bhinmal city in the state of Rajasthan of northwest India. He likely lived most of his life in Bhillamala (modern Bhinmal in Rajasthan) in the empire of Harsha during the reign (and possibly under the patronage) of King Vyaghramukha.[1] As a result, Brahmagupta is often referred to as Bhillamalacarya, that is, the teacher from Bhillamala Bhinmal. He was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, and during his tenure there wrote four texts on mathematics and astronomy: the Cadamekela in 624, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta in 628, the Khandakhadyaka in 665, and the Durkeamynarda in 672. The Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Corrected Treatise of Brahma) is arguably his most famous work. The historian alBiruni (c. 1050) in his book Tariq al-Hind states that the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun had an embassy in India and from India a book was brought to Baghdad which was translated

into Arabic as Sindhind. It is generally presumed that Sindhind is none other than Brahmagupta's Brahmasphuta-siddhanta.[2] Although Brahmagupta was familiar with the works of astronomers following the tradition of Aryabhatiya, it is not known if he was familiar with the work of Bhaskara I, a contemporary.[1] Brahmagupta had a plethora of criticism directed towards the work of rival astronomers, and in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta is found one of the earliest attested schisms among Indian mathematicians. The division was primarily about the application of mathematics to the physical world, rather than about the mathematics itself. In Brahmagupta's case, the disagreements stemmed largely from the choice of astronomical parameters and theories.[1] Critiques of rival theories appear throughout the first ten astronomical chapters and the eleventh chapter is entirely devoted to criticism of these theories, although no criticisms appear in the twelfth and eighteenth chapters.[1]

[edit] Mathematics
Brahmagupta's most famous work is his Brahmasphutasiddhanta. It is composed in elliptic verse, as was common practice in Indian mathematics, and consequently has a poetic ring to it. As no proofs are given, it is not known how Brahmagupta's mathematics was derived.[3]

[edit] Algebra
Brahmagupta gave the solution of the general linear equation in chapter eighteen of Brahmasphutasiddhanta,
18.43 The difference between rupas, when inverted and divided by the difference of the unknowns, is the unknown in the equation. The rupas are [subtracted on the side] below that from which the square and the unknown are to be subtracted. [4]

Which is a solution equivalent to , where rupas represents constants. He further gave two equivalent solutions to the general quadratic equation,
18.44. Diminish by the middle [number] the square-root of the rupas multiplied by four times the square and increased by the square of the middle [number]; divide the remainder by twice the square. [The result is] the middle [number]. 18.45. Whatever is the square-root of the rupas multiplied by the square [and] increased by the square of half the unknown, diminish that by half the unknown [and] divide [the remainder] by its square. [The result is] the unknown.[4]

Which are, respectively, solutions equivalent to, and He went on to solve systems of simultaneous indeterminate equations stating that the desired variable must first be isolated, and then the equation must be divided by the

desired variable's coefficient. In particular, he recommended using "the pulverizer" to solve equations with multiple unknowns.
18.51. Subtract the colors different from the first color. [The remainder] divided by the first [color's coefficient] is the measure of the first. [Terms] two by two [are] considered [when reduced to] similar divisors, [and so on] repeatedly. If there are many [colors], the pulverizer [is to be used].[4]

Like the algebra of Diophantus, the algebra of Brahmagupta was syncopated. Addition was indicated by placing the numbers side by side, subtraction by placing a dot over the subtrahend, and division by placing the divisor below the dividend, similar to our notation but without the bar. Multiplication, evolution, and unknown quantities were represented by abbreviations of appropriate terms.[5] The extent of Greek influence on this syncopation, if any, is not known and it is possible that both Greek and Indian syncopation may be derived from a common Babylonian source.[5]

[edit] Arithmetic
In the beginning of chapter twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Calculation, Brahmagupta details operations on fractions. The reader is expected to know the basic arithmetic operations as far as taking the square root, although he explains how to find the cube and cube-root of an integer and later gives rules facilitating the computation of squares and square roots. He then gives rules for dealing with five types of combinations of fractions, , , , , and .[6]

[edit] Series
Brahmagupta then goes on to give the sum of the squares and cubes of the first n integers.
12.20. The sum of the squares is that [sum] multiplied by twice the [number of] step[s] increased by one [and] divided by three. The sum of the cubes is the square of that [sum] Piles of these with identical balls [can also be computed].[7]

It is important to note here Brahmagupta found the result in terms of the sum of the first n integers, rather than in terms of n as is the modern practice.[8] He gives the sum of the squares of the first n natural numbers as n(n+1)(2n+1)/6 and the sum of the cubes of the first n natural numbers as (n(n+1)/2).

[edit] Zero
Brahmagupta made use of an important concept in mathematics, the number zero. The Brahmasphutasiddhanta is the earliest known text to treat zero as a number in its own right, rather than as simply a placeholder digit in representing another number as was done by the Babylonians or as a symbol for a lack of quantity as was done by Ptolemy

and the Romans. In chapter eighteen of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta describes operations on negative numbers. He first describes addition and subtraction,
18.30. [The sum] of two positives is positives, of two negatives negative; of a positive and a negative [the sum] is their difference; if they are equal it is zero. The sum of a negative and zero is negative, [that] of a positive and zero positive, [and that] of two zeros zero. [...] 18.32. A negative minus zero is negative, a positive [minus zero] positive; zero [minus zero] is zero. When a positive is to be subtracted from a negative or a negative from a positive, then it is to be added.[4]

He goes on to describe multiplication,

18.33. The product of a negative and a positive is negative, of two negatives positive, and of positives positive; the product of zero and a negative, of zero and a positive, or of two zeros is zero.[4]

But then he spoils the matter some what when he describes division,
18.34. A positive divided by a positive or a negative divided by a negative is positive; a zero divided by a zero is zero; a positive divided by a negative is negative; a negative divided by a positive is [also] negative. 18.35. A negative or a positive divided by zero has that [zero] as its divisor, or zero divided by a negative or a positive [has that negative or positive as its divisor]. The square of a negative or of a positive is positive; [the square] of zero is zero. That of which [the square] is the square is [its] square-root.[4]

Here Brahmagupta states that and as for the question of where he did not commit himself. [9] His rules for arithmetic on negative numbers and zero are quite close to the modern understanding, except that in modern mathematics division by zero is left undefined.

[edit] Diophantine analysis

[edit] Pythagorean triples

In chapter twelve of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Brahmagupta finds Pythagorean triples,
12.39. The height of a mountain multiplied by a given multiplier is the distance to a city; it is not erased. When it is divided by the multiplier increased by two it is the leap of one of the two who make the same journey.[7]

or in other words, for a given length m and an arbitrary multiplier x, let a = mx and b = m + mx/(x + 2). Then m, a, and b form a Pythagorean triple.[7]

[edit] Pell's equation

Brahmagupta went on to give a recurrence relation for generating solutions to certain instances of Diophantine equations of the second degree such as Nx2 + 1 = y2 (called Pell's equation) by using the Euclidean algorithm. The Euclidean algorithm was known to him as the "pulverizer" since it breaks numbers down into ever smaller pieces.[10]
The nature of squares: 18.64. [Put down] twice the square-root of a given square by a multiplier and increased or diminished by an arbitrary [number]. The product product of the first [pair], multiplied by the multiplier, with the product of the last [pair], is the last computed. 18.65. The sum of the thunderbolt products is the first. The additive is equal to the product of the additives. The two square-roots, divided by the additive or the subtractive, are the additive rupas.
[4]

The key to his solution was the identity,[11] which is a generalization of an identity that was discovered by Diophantus, Using his identity and the fact that if (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) are solutions to the equations x2 Ny2 = k1 and x2 Ny2 = k2, respectively, then (x1x2 + Ny1y2, x1y2 + x2y1) is a solution to x2 Ny2 = k1k2, he was able to find integral solutions to the Pell's equation through a series of equations of the form x2 Ny2 = ki. Unfortunately, Brahmagupta was not able to apply his solution uniformly for all possible values of N, rather he was only able to show that if x2 Ny2 = k has an integral solution for k = then x2 Ny2 = 1 has a solution. The solution of the general Pell's equation would have to wait for Bhaskara II in c. 1150 CE.[11]

[edit] Geometry

[edit] Brahmagupta's formula

Diagram for reference Main article: Brahmagupta's formula Brahmagupta's most famous result in geometry is his formula for cyclic quadrilaterals. Given the lengths of the sides of any cyclic quadrilateral, Brahmagupta gave an approximate and an exact formula for the figure's area,
12.21. The approximate area is the product of the halves of the sums of the sides and opposite sides of a triangle and a quadrilateral. The accurate [area] is the square root from the product of the halves of the sums of the sides diminished by [each] side of the quadrilateral. [7]

So given the lengths p, q, r and s of a cyclic quadrilateral, the approximate area is while, letting , the exact area is Although Brahmagupta does not explicitly state that these quadrilaterals are cyclic, it is apparent from his rules that this is the case.[12] Heron's formula is a special case of this formula and it can be derived by setting one of the sides equal to zero.

[edit] Triangles
Brahmagupta dedicated a substantial portion of his work to geometry. One theorem states that the two lengths of a triangle's base when divided by its altitude then follows,
12.22. The base decreased and increased by the difference between the squares of the sides divided by the base; when divided by two they are the true segments. The perpendicular [altitude] is the square-root from the square of a side diminished by the square of its segment. [7]

Thus the lengths of the two segments are . He further gives a theorem on rational triangles. A triangle with rational sides a, b, c and rational area is of the form: for some rational numbers u, v, and w.[13]

[edit] Brahmagupta's theorem

Main article: Brahmagupta theorem Brahmagupta's theorem states that AF = FD. Brahmagupta continues,
12.23. The square-root of the sum of the two products of the sides and opposite sides of a nonunequal quadrilateral is the diagonal. The square of the diagonal is diminished by the square of half the sum of the base and the top; the square-root is the perpendicular [altitudes]. [7]

So, in a "non-unequal" cyclic quadrilateral (that is, an isosceles trapezoid), the length of each diagonal is . He continues to give formulas for the lengths and areas of geometric figures, such as the circumradius of an isosceles trapezoid and a scalene quadrilateral, and the lengths of diagonals in a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. This leads up to Brahmagupta's famous theorem,
12.30-31. Imaging two triangles within [a cyclic quadrilateral] with unequal sides, the two diagonals are the two bases. Their two segments are separately the upper and lower segments [formed] at the intersection of the diagonals. The two [lower segments] of the two diagonals are two sides in a triangle; the base [of the quadrilateral is the base of the triangle]. Its perpendicular

is the lower portion of the [central] perpendicular; the upper portion of the [central] perpendicular is half of the sum of the [sides] perpendiculars diminished by the lower [portion of the central perpendicular].[7]

[edit] Pi
In verse 40, he gives values of ,
12.40. The diameter and the square of the radius [each] multiplied by 3 are [respectively] the practical circumference and the area [of a circle]. The accurate [values] are the square-roots from the squares of those two multiplied by ten.[7]

So Brahmagupta uses 3 as a "practical" value of , and as an "accurate" value of .

[edit] Measurements and constructions

In some of the verses before verse 40, Brahmagupta gives constructions of various figures with arbitrary sides. He essentially manipulated right triangles to produce isosceles triangles, scalene triangles, rectangles, isosceles trapezoids, isosceles trapezoids with three equal sides, and a scalene cyclic quadrilateral. After giving the value of pi, he deals with the geometry of plane figures and solids, such as finding volumes and surface areas (or empty spaces dug out of solids). He finds the volume of rectangular prisms, pyramids, and the frustrum of a square pyramid. He further finds the average depth of a series of pits. For the volume of a frustum of a pyramid, he gives the "pragmatic" value as the depth times the square of the mean of the edges of the top and bottom faces, and he gives the "superficial" volume as the depth times their mean area.[14]

[edit] Trigonometry

[edit] sine table

It has been suggested that Brahmagupta interpolation formula be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) In Chapter 2 of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Planetary True Longitudes, Brahmagupta presents a sine table:
2.2-5. The sines: The Progenitors, twins; Ursa Major, twins, the Vedas; the gods, fires, six; flavors, dice, the gods; the moon, five, the sky, the moonl the moon, arrows, suns [...] [15]

Here Brahmagupta uses names of objects to represent the digits of place-value numerals, as was common with numerical data in Sanskrit treatises. Progenitors represents the 14 Progenitors ("Manu") in Indian cosmology or 14, "twins" means 2, "Ursa Major" represents the seven stars of Ursa Major or 7, "Vedas" refers to the 4 Vedas or 4, dice represents the number of sides of the tradition die or 6, and so on. This information can

be translated into the list of sines, 214, 427, 638, 846, 1051, 1251, 1446, 1635, 1817, 1991, 2156, 2312, 1459, 2594, 2719, 2832, 2933, 3021, 3096, 3159, 3207, 3242, 3263, and 3270, with the radius being 3270.[16] In his Paitamahasiddhanta, Brahmagupta uses the initial sine value of 225 with a radius of approximately 3438, although the rest of the sine table is lost. The value of 3438 for the radius is a traditional value that was also used by Aryabhata, although it is not known why Brahmagupta used 3270 instead of the 3438 in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta.[16]

[edit] Astronomy
It was through the Brahmasphutasiddhanta that the Arabs learned of Indian astronomy.[17] The famous Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur (712775) founded Baghdad, which is situated on the banks of the Tigris, and made it a center of learning. The caliph invited a scholar of Ujjain by the name of Kankah in 770 A.D. Kankah used the Brahmasphutasiddhanta to explain the Hindu system of arithmetic astronomy. Muhammad al-Fazari translated Brahmugupta's work into Arabic upon the request of the caliph. In chapter seven of his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, entitled Lunar Crescent, Brahmagupta rebuts the idea that the Moon is farther from the Earth than the Sun, an idea which is maintained in scriptures. He does this by explaining the illumination of the Moon by the Sun.[18]
7.1. If the moon were above the sun, how would the power of waxing and waning, etc., be produced from calculation of the [longitude of the] moon? the near half [would be] always bright. 7.2. In the same way that the half seen by the sun of a pot standing in sunlight is bright, and the unseen half dark, so is [the illumination] of the moon [if it is] beneath the sun. 7.3. The brightness is increased in the direction of the sun. At the end of a bright [i.e. waxing] half-month, the near half is bright and the far half dark. Hence, the elevation of the horns [of the crescent can be derived] from calculation. [...] [19]

He explains that since the Moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, the degree of the illuminated part of the Moon depends on the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon, and this can be computed from the size of the angle between the two bodies.[18] Some of the important contributions made by Brahmagupta in astronomy are: methods for calculating the position of heavenly bodies over time (ephemerides), their rising and setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses.[20] Brahmagupta criticized the Puranic view that the Earth was flat or hollow. Instead, he observed that the Earth and heaven were spherical and that the Earth is moving. In 1030, the Muslim astronomer Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni, in his Ta'rikh al-Hind, later translated into Latin as Indica, commented on Brahmagupta's work and wrote that critics argued:
"If such were the case, stones would and trees would fall from the earth." [21]

According to al-Biruni, Brahmagupta responded to these criticisms with the following argument on gravitation:
"On the contrary, if that were the case, the earth would not vie in keeping an even and uniform pace with the minutes of heaven, the pranas of the times. [...] All heavy things are attracted towards the center of the earth. [...] The earth on all its sides is the same; all people on earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to the earth by a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow, that of fire to burn, and that of wind to set in motion The earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth." [22]

About the Earth's gravity he said: "Bodies fall towards the earth as it is in the nature of the earth to attract bodies, just as it is in the nature of water to flow."[23]

bharamgupta

manuscript

Blaise Pascal (French pronunciation: [blz paskal]), (June 19, 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand, France August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a civil servant. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method. Pascal was a mathematician of the first order. He helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. His results caused many disputes before being accepted. In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism know by its detractors as Jansenism.[1] His father died in 1651. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Penses, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In this year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetic of triangles. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the cycloid and its use in calculating the volume of solids. Pascal had poor health throughout his life and his death came just two months after his 39th

Early life and education

Pascal lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three. His father, tienne Pascal (15881651), who also had an interest in science and mathematics, was a local judge and member of the "Noblesse de Robe". Pascal had two sisters, the younger Jacqueline and the elder Gilberte. In 1631, after the death of his wife, tienne Pascal moved with his children to Paris. The newly arrived family soon hired Louise Delfault, a maid who eventually became an instrumental member of the family. tienne, who never remarried, decided that he alone would educate his children, for they all showed extraordinary intellectual ability, particularly his son Blaise. The young Pascal showed an amazing aptitude for mathematics and science. At the age of eleven, he composed a short treatise on the sounds of vibrating bodies, and tienne responded by forbidding his son to further pursue mathematics until the age of fifteen so as not to harm his study of Latin and Greek. One

day, however, tienne found Blaise (now twelve) writing an independent proof that the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles with a piece of coal on a wall. From then on, the boy was allowed to study Euclid; perhaps more importantly, he was allowed to sit in as a silent on-looker at the gatherings of some of the greatest mathematicians and scientists in Europesuch as Roberval, Desargues, Mydorge, Gassendi, and Descartesin the monastic cell of Pre Mersenne. Particularly of interest to Pascal was a work of Desargues on conic sections. Following Desargues' thinking, the sixteen-year-old Pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the "Mystic Hexagram", Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics") and sent ithis first serious work of mathematicsto Pre Mersenne in Paris; it is known still today as Pascal's theorem. It states that if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle (or conic) then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a line (called the Pascal line). Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes, when shown the manuscript, refused to believe that the composition was not by the elder Pascal. When assured by Mersenne that it was, indeed, the product of the son not the father, Descartes dismissed it with a sniff: "I do not find it strange that he has offered demonstrations about conics more appropriate than those of the ancients," adding, "but other matters related to this subject can be proposed that would scarcely occur to a sixteen-year-old child."[3] In France at that time offices and positions could beand werebought and sold. In 1631 tienne sold his position as second president of the Cour des Aides for 65,665 livres.[4] The money was invested in a government bond which provided if not a lavish then certainly a comfortable income which allowed the Pascal family to move to, and enjoy, Paris. But in 1638 Richelieu, desperate for money to carry on the Thirty Year War, defaulted on the government's bonds. Suddenly tienne Pascal's worth had dropped from nearly 66,000 livres to less than 7,300.

An early Pascaline on display at the Muse des Arts et Mtiers, Paris. Like so many others, tienne was eventually forced to flee Paris because of his opposition to the fiscal policies of Cardinal Richelieu, leaving his three children in the care of his neighbor Madame Sainctot, a great beauty with an infamous past who kept one of the most glittering and intellectual salons in all France. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play with Richelieu in attendance that tienne was pardoned. In time tienne was back in good graces with the cardinal, and in 1639

had been appointed the king's commissioner of taxes in the city of Rouen a city whose tax records, thanks to uprisings, were in utter chaos. In 1642, in an effort to ease his father's endless, exhausting calculations, and recalculations, of taxes owed and paid, Pascal, not yet nineteen, constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline. The Muse des Arts et Mtiers in Paris and the Zwinger museum in Dresden, Germany, exhibit two of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines are early forerunners to computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Because it was extraordinarily expensive the Pascaline became little more than a toy, and status symbol, for the very rich both in France and throughout Europe. However, Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built fifty machines in total.

[edit] Contributions to mathematics

Pascal's triangle. Each number is the sum of the two directly above it. The triangle demonstrates many mathematical properties in addition to showing binomial coefficients. Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. His Trait du triangle arithmtique ("Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle") of 1653 described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, now called Pascal's triangle. The triangle can also be represented: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 2 3 4 5 6

2 1 3 6 10 15

3 1 4 10 20

4 1 5 15

5 1 6

6 1 He defines the numbers in the triangle by recursion: Call the number in the (m+1)st row and (n+1)st column tmn. Then tmn = tm-1,n + tm,n-1, for m = 0, 1, 2... and n = 0, 1, 2... The boundary conditions are tm, -1 = 0, t-1, n for m = 1, 2, 3... and n = 1, 2, 3... The generator t00 = 1. Pascal concludes with the proof, In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of probabilities. The friend was the Chevalier de Mr, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. From this discussion, the notion of expected value was introduced. Pascal later (in the Penses) used a probabilistic argument, Pascal's Wager, to justify belief in God and a virtuous life. The work done by Fermat and Pascal into the calculus of probabilities laid important groundwork for Leibniz' formulation of the infinitesimal calculus.[5] After a religious experience in 1654, Pascal mostly gave up work in mathematics. However, after a sleepless night in 1658, he anonymously offered a prize for the quadrature of a cycloid. Solutions were offered by Wallis, Huygens, Wren, and others; Pascal, under the pseudonym Amos Dettonville, published his own solution. Controversy and heated argument followed after Pascal announced himself the winner.

[edit] Philosophy of mathematics

Pascal's major contribution to the philosophy of mathematics came with his De l'Esprit gomtrique ("On the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "Petites-Ecoles de Port-Royal" ("Little Schools of PortRoyal"). The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here, Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal of such a method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he

claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them upfirst principles, therefore, cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true. Pascal also used De l'Esprit gomtrique to develop a theory of definition. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of essentialism. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of formalism as formulated by Descartes. In De l'Art de persuader ("On the Art of Persuasion"), Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths.

[edit] Contributions to the physical sciences

Portrait of Blaise Pascal Pascal's work in the fields of the study of hydrodynamics and hydrostatics centered on the principles of hydraulic fluids. His inventions include the hydraulic press (using hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the syringe. By 1646, Pascal had learned of Evangelista Torricelli's experimentation with barometers. Having replicated an experiment which involved placing a tube filled with mercury upside down in a bowl of mercury, Pascal questioned what force kept some mercury in the tube and what filled the

space above the mercury in the tube. At the time, most scientists contended that, rather than a vacuum, some invisible matter was present. This was based on the Aristotelian notion that creation was a thing of substance, whether visible or invisible; and this substance was forever in motion. Furthermore, "Everything that is in motion must be moved by something," Aristotle declared.[6] Therefore, to the Aristotelian trained scientists of Pascal's time, a vacuum was an impossibility. How so? As proof it was pointed out:

Light passed through the so-called "vacuum" in the glass tube. Aristotle wrote how everything moved, and must be moved by something. Therefore, since there had to be an invisible "something" to move the light through the glass tube, there was no vacuum in the tube. Not in the glass tube or anywhere else. Vacuumsthe absence of any and everythingwere simply an impossibility.

Following more experimentation in this vein, in 1647 Pascal produced Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide ("New Experiments with the Vacuum"), which detailed basic rules describing to what degree various liquids could be supported by air pressure. It also provided reasons why it was indeed a vacuum above the column of liquid in a barometer tube. On September 19, 1648, after many months of Pascal's friendly but insistent prodding, Florin Prier, husband of Pascal's elder sister Gilberte, was finally to carry out the fact finding mission vital to Pascal's theory. The account, written by Prier, reads:
"The weather was chancy last Saturday...[but] around five o'clock that morning...the Puy-deDme was visible...so I decided to give it a try. Several important people of the city of Clermont had asked me to let them know when I would make the ascent...I was delighted to have them with me in this great work... "...at eight o'clock we met in the gardens of the Minim Fathers, which has the lowest elevation in town....First I poured sixteen pounds of quicksilver...into a vessel...then took several glass tubes...each four feet long and hermetically sealed at one end and opened at the other...then placed them in the vessel [of quicksilver]...I found the quick silver stood at 26" and 3 lines above the quicksilver in the vessel...I repeated the experiment two more times while standing in the same spot...[they] produced the same result each time... "I attached one of the tubes to the vessel and marked the height of the quicksilver and...asked Father Chastin, one of the Minim Brothers...to watch if any changes should occur through the day...Taking the other tube and a portion of the quick silver...I walked to the top of Puy-de-Dme, about 500 fathoms higher than the monastery, where upon experiment...found that the quicksilver reached a height of only 23" and 2 lines...I repeated the experiment five times with care...each at different points on the summit...found the same height of quicksilver...in each case..." [7]

Pascal replicated the experiment in Paris by carrying a barometer up to the top of the bell tower at the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, a height of about fifty meters. The mercury dropped two lines. These, and other lesser experiments carried out by Pascal, were hailed throughout Europe as establishing the principle and value of the barometer. In the face of criticism that some invisible matter must exist in Pascal's empty space, Pascal, in his reply to Estienne Noel, gave one of the seventeenth century's major

statements on the scientific method: "In order to show that a hypothesis is evident, it does not suffice that all the phenomena follow from it; instead, if it leads to something contrary to a single one of the phenomena, that suffices to establish its falsity." His insistence on the existence of the vacuum also led to conflict with other prominent scientists, including Descartes.

[edit] Adult life, religion, philosophy, and literature

For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.

Blaise Pascal, Penses #72

[edit] Religious conversion

Pascal studying the cycloid, by Augustin Pajou, 1785, Louvre Two basic influences led him to his conversion: sickness and Jansenism. From as early as his eighteenth year, Pascal suffered from a nervous ailment that left him hardly a day without pain. In 1647, a paralytic attack so disabled him that he could not move without crutches. His head ached, his bowels burned, his legs and feet were continually cold, and required wearisome aids to circulate the blood; he wore stockings steeped in brandy to warm his feet. Partly to get better medical treatment, he moved to Paris with his sister Jacqueline. His health improved, but his nervous system had been permanently damaged. Henceforth, he was subject to deepening hypochondria, which affected his character and his philosophy. He became irritable, subject to fits of proud and imperious anger, and seldom smiled.[8]

In the winter of 1646, Pascal's 58 year-old father broke his hip when he slipped and fell on an icy street of Rouen; given the man's age and the state of medicine in the 17th century, a broken hip could be a very serious condition, perhaps even fatal. Rouen was home to two of the finest doctors in France: Monsieur Doctor Deslandes and Monsieur Doctor de La Bouteillerie. The elder Pascal "would not let anyone other than these men attend him...It was a good choice, for the old man survived and was able to walk again..."[9] But treatment and rehabilitation took three months, during which time La Bouteillerie and Deslandes had become household guests. Both men were followers of Jean Guillebert, proponent of a splinter group from the main body of Catholic teaching known as Jansenism. This still fairly small sect was making surprising inroads into the French Catholic community at that time. It espoused rigorous Augustinism. Blaise spoke with the doctors frequently, and upon his successful treatment of tienne, borrowed works by Jansenist authors from them. In this period, Pascal experienced a sort of "first conversion" and began to write on theological subjects in the course of the following year. Pascal fell away from this initial religious engagement and experienced a few years of what some biographers have called his "worldly period" (164854). His father died in 1651 and left his inheritance to Pascal and Jacqueline, of which Pascal acted as her conservator. Jacqueline announced that she would soon become a postulant in the Jansenist convent of Port-Royal. Pascal was deeply affected and very sad, not because of her choice, but because of his chronic poor health; he too needed her.
"Suddenly there was war in the Pascal household. Blaise pleaded with Jacqueline not to leave, but she was adamant. He commanded her to stay, but that didn't work, either. At the heart of this was...Blaise's fear of abandonment...if Jacqueline entered Port-Royal, she would have to leave her inheritance behind...[but] nothing would change her mind."[10]

By the end of October in 1651, a truce had been reached between brother and sister. In return for a healthy annual stipend, Jacqueline signed over her part of the inheritance to her brother. Gilberte had already been given her inheritance in the form of a dowry. In early January, Jacqueline left for Port-Royal. On that day, according to Gilberte concerning her brother, "He retired very sadly to his rooms without seeing Jacqueline, who was waiting in the little parlor..."[11] In early June of 1653, after what must have seemed like endless badgering from Jacqueline, Pascal formally signed over the whole of his sister's inheritance to Port-Royal, which, to him, "had begun to smell like a cult."[12] With two-thirds of his father's estate now gone, the 29 year old Pascal was now consigned to genteel poverty. For a while, Pascal pursued the life of a bachelor. He showed strong interest in one woman while in Auvergne. He referred to her as the "Sappho of the countryside."[13] During this time, Pascal wrote Discours sur les passions de l'amour ("Conversation about the Passions of Love") and apparently contemplated marriage which he was later to describe as "the lowest of the conditions of life permitted to a Christian."[14] Jacqueline reproached him for his frivolity and prayed for his reform.[citation needed] During visits to his

sister at Port-Royal in 1654, he displayed contempt for affairs of the world but was not drawn to God.[15]

[edit] Brush with death

In October 1654, Pascal is said to have been involved in an accident at the Neuilly-surSeine bridge where the horses plunged over the parapet and the carriage nearly followed them. Fortunately, the reins broke and the coach hung halfway over the edge. Pascal and his friends emerged unscathed, but the sensitive philosopher, terrified by the nearness of death, fainted away and remained unconscious for some time. On 23 November 1654, between 10:30 and 12:30 at night, Pascal had an intense religious vision and immediately recorded the experience in a brief note to himself which began: "Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars" and concluded by quoting Psalm 119:16: "I will not forget thy word. Amen." He seems to have carefully sewn this document into his coat and always transferred it when he changed clothes; a servant discovered it only by chance after his death.[16] This piece is now known as the Memorial. The story of the carriage accident as having led to the experience described in the Memorial is disputed by some scholars.[17] His belief and religious commitment revitalized, Pascal visited the older of two convents at Port-Royal for a two-week retreat in January 1655. For the next four years, he regularly travelled between Port-Royal and Paris. It was at this point immediately after his conversion when he began writing his first major literary work on religion, the Provincial Letters

[edit] The Provincial Letters

Main article: Lettres provinciales
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Beginning in 1656, Pascal published his memorable attack on casuistry, a popular ethical method used by Catholic thinkers in the early modern period (especially the Jesuits, and in particular Antonio Escobar). Pascal denounced casuistry as the mere use of complex reasoning to justify moral laxity and all sorts of sins. His method of framing his arguments was clever: the Provincial Letters pretended to be the report of a Parisian to a friend in the provinces on the moral and theological issues then exciting the intellectual and religious circles in the capital. Pascal, combining the fervor of a convert with the wit and polish of a man of the world, reached a new level of style in French prose. The 18letter series was published between 1656 and 1657 under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte and incensed Louis XIV. The king ordered that the book be shredded and burnt in 1660. In 1661, in the midsts of the formulary controversy, the Jansenist school at PortRoyal was condemned and closed down; those involved with the school had to sign a 1656 papal bull condemning the teachings of Jansen as heretical. The final letter from Pascal, in 1657, had defied the Pope himself, provoking Alexander VII to condemn the letters. But that didn't stop all of educated France from reading them. Even Pope Alexander, while publicly opposing them, nonetheless was persuaded by Pascal's arguments. He condemned "laxism" in the church and ordered a revision of casuistical texts just a few years later (166566). Aside from their religious influence, the Provincial Letters were popular as a literary work. Pascal's use of humor, mockery, and vicious satire in his arguments made the letters ripe for public consumption, and influenced the prose of later French writers like Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Wide praise has been given to the Provincial Letters. Voltaire called the Letters "the bestwritten book that has yet appeared in France."[18] And when Bossuet was asked what book he would rather have written had he not written his own, he answered, the Provincial Letters of Pascal.[19]

[edit] Miracle
When Pascal was back in Paris just after overseeing the publication of the last Letter, his religion was reinforced by the close association to an apparent miracle in the chapel of the Port-Royal nunnery. His 10-year-old niece, Marguerite Prier, was suffering from a painful fistula lacrymalis that exuded noisome pus through her eyes and nosean affliction the doctors pronounced hopeless. Then, on March 24, 1657, a believer presented to Port-Royal what he and others claimed to be a thorn from the crown that had tortured Christ. The nuns, in solemn ceremony and singing psalms, placed the thorn on their altar. Each in turn kissed the relic, and one of them, seeing Marguerite among the worshipers, took the thorn and with it touched the girl's sore. That evening, we are told, Marguerite expressed surprise that her eye no longer pained her; her mother was astonished to find no sign of the fistula; a physician, summoned, reported that the discharge and swelling had disappeared. He, not the nuns, spread word of what he termed a miraculous cure. Seven other physicians who had had previous knowledge of

Marguerite's fistula signed a statement that in their judgment a miracle had taken place. The diocesan officials investigated, came to the same conclusion, and authorized a Te Deum Mass in Port-Royal. Crowds of believers came to see and kiss the thorn; all of Catholic Paris acclaimed a miracle. Later, both pro and anti Jansenists used this welldocumented miracle to their defense. In 1728, Pope Benedict XIII referred to the case as proving that the age of miracles had not passed. Pascal made himself an armorial emblem of an eye surrounded by a crown of thorns, with the inscription Scio cui credidi"I know whom I have believed."[20] His beliefs renewed, he set his mind to write his final, unfinished testament, the Penses.

[edit] The Penses

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Penses Main article: Penses Pascal's most influential theological work, referred to posthumously as the Penses ("Thoughts"), was not completed before his death. It was to have been a sustained and coherent examination and defense of the Christian faith, with the original title Apologie de la religion Chrtienne ("Defense of the Christian Religion"). What was found upon sifting through his personal items after his death were numerous scraps of paper with isolated thoughts, grouped in a tentative, but telling, order. The first version of the detached notes appeared in print as a book in 1670 titled Penses de M. Pascal sur la religion, et sur quelques autres sujets ("Thoughts of M. Pascal on religion, and on some other subjects") and soon thereafter became a classic. One of the Apologie's main strategies was to use the contradictory philosophies of skepticism and stoicism, personalized by Montaigne on one hand, and Epictetus on the other, in order to bring the unbeliever to such despair and confusion that he would embrace God. This strategy was deemed quite hazardous by Pierre Nicole, Antoine Arnauld and other friends and scholars of Port-Royal, who were concerned that these fragmentary "thoughts" might lead to skepticism rather than to piety. Henceforth, they concealed the skeptical pieces and modified some of the rest, lest King or Church should take offense[21] for at that time the persecution of Port-Royal had ceased, and the editors were not interested in a renewal of controversy. Not until the nineteenth century were the Penses published in their full and authentic text. Pascal's Penses is widely considered to be a masterpiece, and a landmark in French prose. When commenting on one particular section (Thought #72), Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language.[22] Will Durant, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of Civilization series, hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose."[23] In Penses, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal's Wager.

[edit] Last works and death

Pascal's epitaph in Saint-tienne-du-Mont, where he was buried T. S. Eliot described him during this phase of his life as "a man of the world among ascetics, and an ascetic among men of the world." Pascal's ascetic lifestyle derived from a belief that it was natural and necessary for man to suffer. In 1659, Pascal, whose health had never been good, fell seriously ill. During his last years, he frequently tried to reject the ministrations of his doctors, saying, "Sickness is the natural state of Christians."[24] Louis XIV suppressed the Jansenist movement at Port-Royal in 1661. In response, Pascal wrote one of his final works, crit sur la signature du formulaire ("Writ on the Signing of the Form"), exhorting the Jansenists not to give in. Later that year, his sister Jacqueline died, which convinced Pascal to cease his polemics on Jansenism. Pascal's last major achievement, returning to his mechanical genius, was inaugurating perhaps the first bus line, moving passengers within Paris in a carriage with many seats. In 1662, Pascal's illness became more violent. Aware that his health was fading quickly, he sought a move to the hospital for incurable diseases, but his doctors declared that he was too unstable to be carried. In Paris on August 18, 1662, Pascal went into convulsions and received extreme unction. He died the next morning, his last words being "May God never abandon me," and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-tienne-du-Mont.[24] An autopsy performed after his death revealed grave problems with his stomach and other organs of his abdomen, along with damage to his brain. Despite the autopsy, the cause of his continual poor health was never precisely determined, though speculation focuses on tuberculosis, stomach cancer, or a combination of the two.[25] The headaches which afflicted Pascal are generally attributed to his brain lesion.

[edit] Legacy

In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name. Pascal's development of probability theory was his most influential contribution to mathematics. Originally applied to gambling, today it is extremely important in economics, especially in actuarial science. John Ross writes, "Probability theory and the discoveries following it changed the way we regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an individual's and society's ability to influence the course of future events."[26] However, it should be noted that Pascal and Fermat, though doing important early work in probability theory, did not develop the field very far. Christiaan Huygens, learning of the subject from the correspondence of Pascal and Fermat, wrote the first book on the subject. Later figures who continued the development of the theory include Abraham de Moivre and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In literature, Pascal is regarded as one of the most important authors of the French Classical Period and is read today as one of the greatest masters of French prose. His use of satire and wit influenced later polemicists. The content of his literary work is best remembered for its strong opposition to the rationalism of Ren Descartes and simultaneous assertion that the main countervailing philosophy, empiricism, was also insufficient for determining major truths.

Blaise Pascal Western Philosophy

17th-century philosophy

Blaise Pascal

Full name School/tradition

Blaise Pascal Continental Philosophy, precursor to existentialism

Main interests Theology, Mathematics Notable ideas Influenced by[ Pascal's Wager, Pascal's triangle, Pascal's law

Ren Descartes
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Ren Descartes Western Philosophy

17th-century philosophy

Portrait after Frans Hals, 1648.[1] Full name School/tradition Ren Descartes Cartesianism, Rationalism, Foundationalism

Main interests

Metaphysics, Epistemology, Science, Mathematics Cogito ergo sum, method of doubt, Cartesian coordinate system, Cartesian

Notable ideas dualism, ontological argument for existence of God; regarded as a founder of Modern philosophy Influenced by[show] Influenced[show]

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Ren Descartes
Cartesianism Rationalism Foundationalism Doubt & Certainty Dream argument Cogito ergo sum Trademark argument Mind-body dichotomy Analytic geometry Coordinate system Cartesian circle

Folium Rule of signs Cartesian diver Balloonist theory Works The World Discourse on the Method La Gomtrie Meditations on First Philosophy Principles of Philosophy Passions of the Soul Notable People Christina of Sweden Baruch Spinoza Gottfried Leibniz
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Rene Descartes (French pronunciation: [ne dekat]), (31 March 1596 11 February 1650), also known as Renatus Cartesius (Latinized form),[2] was a French philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is also apparent, the Cartesian coordinate system allowing geometric shapes to be expressed in algebraic equations being named for him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.

Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, he goes so far as to assert that he will write on his topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like St. Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the Schools on two major points: First, he rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to endsdivine or naturalin explaining natural phenomena.[3] In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of Gods act of creation. Descartes was a major figure in 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. As the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system, Descartes founded analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of calculus and analysis. His most famous statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am; or I am thinking, therefore I exist), found in 7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (Latin) and in part IV of Discourse on the Method (French).

Contents
[hide]

1 Biography 2 Philosophical work 3 Dualism 4 Mathematical legacy 5 Contemporary reception 6 Religious beliefs 7 Writings 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Biography

Graduation registry for Descartes at the Collge Royal Henry-Le-Grand, La Flche, 1616. Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine (now Descartes), Indre-et-Loire, France. When he was one year old, his mother Jeanne Brochard died of tuberculosis. His father Joachim was a member in the provincial parliament. At the age of eleven, he entered the Jesuit Collge Royal Henry-Le-Grand at La Flche. After graduation, he studied at the University of Poitiers, earning a Baccalaurat and Licence in law in 1616, in accordance with his father's wishes that he should become a lawyer.[4]

I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it. (Descartes, Discourse on the Method)

In the summer of 1618 he joined the army of Maurice of Nassau in the Dutch Republic.[5] On 10 November 1618, while walking through Breda, Descartes met Isaac Beeckman, who sparked his interest in mathematics and the new physics, particularly the problem of the fall of heavy bodies. While in the service of the Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, Descartes was present at the Battle of the White Mountain outside Prague, in November 1620.[6] In 1622 he returned to France, and during the next few years spent time in Paris and other parts of Europe. He arrived in La Haye in 1623, selling all of his property, investing this remuneration in bonds which provided Descartes with a comfortable income for the rest of his life. Descartes was present at the siege of La Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627. He returned to the Dutch Republic in 1628, where he lived until September 1649. In April 1629 he joined the University of Franeker and the next year, under the name "Poitevin", he enrolled at the Leiden University to study mathematics with Jacob Golius and astronomy with Martin Hortensius[7]. In October 1630 he had a falling out with

Beeckman, whom he accused of plagiarizing some of his ideas (though the situation was more likely the reverse)[citation needed]. In Amsterdam, he had a relationship with a servant girl, Helne Jans, with whom he had a daughter, Francine, who was born in 1635 in Deventer, at which time Descartes taught at the Utrecht University. Francine Descartes died in 1640 in Amersfoort. While in the Netherlands he changed his address frequently, living among other places in Dordrecht (1628), Franeker (1629), Amsterdam (1629-30), Leiden (1630), Amsterdam (1630-2), Deventer (1632-4), Amsterdam (1634-5), Utrecht (1635-6), Leiden (1636), Egmond (1636-8), Santpoort (16381640), Leiden (1640-1), Endegeest (a castle near Oegstgeest) (1641-3), and finally for an extended time in Egmond-Binnen (1643-9). Despite these frequent moves he wrote all his major work during his 20 plus years in the Netherlands, where he managed to revolutionize mathematics and philosophy. In 1633, Galileo was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, and Descartes abandoned plans to publish Treatise on the World, his work of the previous four years. "Discourse on the Method" was published in 1637. In it Descartes lays out four rules of thought, meant to ensure that our knowledge rests upon a firm foundation.

Ren Descartes with Queen Christina of Sweden. Descartes continued to publish works concerning both mathematics and philosophy for the rest of his life. In 1643, Cartesian philosophy was condemned at the University of Utrecht, and Descartes began his long correspondence with Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia. In 1647, he was awarded a pension by the King of France. Descartes was interviewed by Frans Burman at Egmond-Binnen in 1648. Ren Descartes died on 11 February 1650 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he had been invited as a teacher for Queen Christina of Sweden. The cause of death was said to be pneumonia accustomed to working in bed until noon, he may have suffered a detrimental effect on his health due to Christina's demands for early morning study (the lack of sleep could have severely compromised his immune system). Others believe that

Descartes may have contracted pneumonia as a result of nursing a French ambassador, Dejion A. Nopeleen, ill with the aforementioned disease, back to health.[8] In 1663, the Pope placed his works on the Index of Prohibited Books.

The tomb of Descartes (middle, with detail of the inscription), in the church of SaintGermain-des-Prs, Paris. As a Roman Catholic in a Protestant nation, he was interred in a graveyard mainly used for unbaptized infants in Adolf Fredrikskyrkan in Stockholm. Later, his remains were taken to France and buried in the church of Sainte-Genevive-du-Mont in Paris. His memorial, erected in the 18th century, remains in the Swedish church.

[edit] Philosophical work

Descartes is often regarded as the first modern thinker to provide a philosophical framework for the natural sciences as these began to develop. In his Discourse on the Method, he attempts to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know as true without any doubt. To achieve this, he employs a method called hyperbolical/metaphysical doubt, sometimes also referred to as methodological skepticism: he rejects any ideas that can be doubted, and then reestablishes them in order to acquire a firm foundation for genuine knowledge.[9] Initially, Descartes arrives at only a single principle: thought exists. Thought cannot be separated from me, therefore, I exist (Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy). Most famously, this is known as cogito ergo sum (English: "I think, therefore I am"). Therefore, Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. "The simple meaning of the phrase is that if one is skeptical of existence, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist." [10]

Ren Descartes at work. Descartes concludes that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks. But in what form? He perceives his body through the use of the senses; however, these have previously been proven unreliable. So Descartes concludes that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking thing. Thinking is his essence as it is the only thing about him that cannot be doubted. Descartes defines "thought" (cogitatio) as "what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it". Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which he is immediately conscious. To further demonstrate the limitations of the senses, Descartes proceeds with what is known as the Wax Argument. He considers a piece of wax; his senses inform him that it has certain characteristics, such as shape, texture, size, color, smell, and so forth. When he brings the wax towards a flame, these characteristics change completely. However, it seems that it is still the same thing: it is still a piece of wax, even though the data of the senses inform him that all of its characteristics are different. Therefore, in order to properly grasp the nature of the wax, he cannot use the senses. He must use his mind. Descartes concludes:

And so something which I thought I was seeing with my eyes is in fact grasped solely by the faculty of judgment which is in my mind.

In this manner, Descartes proceeds to construct a system of knowledge, discarding perception as unreliable and instead admitting only deduction as a method. In the third and fifth Meditation, he offers an ontological proof of a benevolent God (through both the ontological argument and trademark argument). Because God is benevolent, he can have some faith in the account of reality his senses provide him, for God has provided him with a working mind and sensory system and does not desire to deceive him. From this supposition, however, he finally establishes the possibility of acquiring knowledge about the world based on deduction and perception. In terms of epistemology therefore,

he can be said to have contributed such ideas as a rigorous conception of foundationalism and the possibility that reason is the only reliable method of attaining knowledge. In Descartes' system, knowledge takes the form of ideas, and philosophical investigation is the contemplation of these ideas. This concept would influence subsequent internalist movements as Descartes' epistemology requires that a connection made by conscious awareness will distinguish knowledge from falsity. As a result of his Cartesian doubt, he viewed rational knowledge as being "incapable of being destroyed" and sought to construct an unshakable ground upon which all other knowledge can be based. The first item of unshakable knowledge that Descartes argues for is the aforementioned cogito, or thinking thing. Descartes also wrote a response to skepticism about the existence of the external world. He argues that sensory perceptions come to him involuntarily, and are not willed by him. They are external to his senses, and according to Descartes, this is evidence of the existence of something outside of his mind, and thus, an external world. Descartes goes on to show that the things in the external world are material by arguing that God would not deceive him as to the ideas that are being transmitted, and that God has given him the "propensity" to believe that such ideas are caused by material things. Descartes was also known for his work in producing the Cartesian Theory of Fallacies. This can be most easily explored using the statement: "This statement is a lie." While it is most commonly referred to as a paradox, the Cartesian Theory of Fallacies states that at any given time a statement can be both true and false simultaneously because of its contradictory nature. The statement is true in its fallacy. Thus, Descartes developed the Cartesian Theory of Fallacies, which greatly influenced the thinking of the time. Many would-be philosophers were trying to develop inexplicable statements of seeming fact, however, this laid rumors of such a proposition impossible. Many philosophers believe that when Descartes formulated his Theory of Fallacies, he intended to be lying, which in and of itself embodies the theory.

[edit] Dualism
Further information: Mind-body dichotomy and dualism Descartes in his Passions of the Soul and The Description of the Human Body suggested that the body works like a machine, that it has the material properties of extension and motion, and that it follows the laws of physics. The mind (or soul), on the other hand, was described as a nonmaterial entity that lacks extension and motion, and does not follow the laws of physics. Descartes argued that only humans have minds, and that the mind interacts with the body at the pineal gland. This form of dualism or duality proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind, such as when people act out of passion. Most of the previous accounts of the relationship between mind and body had been uni-directional.

Descartes suggested that the pineal gland is "the seat of the soul" for several reasons. First, the soul is unitary, and unlike many areas of the brain the pineal gland appeared to be unitary (though subsequent microscopic inspection has revealed it is formed of two hemispheres). Second, Descartes observed that the pineal gland was located near the ventricles. He believed the animal spirits of the ventricles acted through the nerves to control the body, and that the pineal gland influenced this process. Finally, Descartes incorrectly believed that only humans have pineal glands, just as, in his view, only humans have minds. This led him to the belief that animals cannot feel pain, and Descartes' practice of vivisection (the dissection of live animals) became widely used throughout Europe until the Enlightenment. Cartesian dualism set the agenda for philosophical discussion of the mind-body problem for many years after Descartes' death. The question of how a nonmaterial mind could influence a material body, without invoking supernatural explanations, remains controversial to this day. Later in correspondence with Princess Elisabeth, he admitted he had no idea how the mind interacted with the body, abandoning the concept of the pineal glands as connection.

[edit] Mathematical legacy

Descartes' theory provided the basis for the calculus of Newton and Leibniz, by applying infinitesimal calculus to the tangent line problem, thus permitting the evolution of that branch of modern mathematics.[11] This appears even more astounding considering that the work was just intended as an example to his Discours de la mthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la verit dans les sciences (Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, better known under the shortened title Discours de la mthode; English, Discourse on the Method). Descartes' rule of signs is also a commonly used method to determine the number of positive and negative roots of a polynomial. Rene Descartes created analytic geometry, and discovered an early form of the law of conservation of momentum (the term momentum refers to the momentum of a force). He outlined his views on the universe in his Principles of Philosophy. Descartes also made contributions to the field of optics. He showed by using geometric construction and the law of refraction (also known as Descartes' law or more commonly Snell's law, who discovered it 16 years earlier) that the angular radius of a rainbow is 42 degrees (i.e., the angle subtended at the eye by the edge of the rainbow and the ray passing from the sun through the rainbow's centre is 42).[12] He also independently discovered the law of reflection, and his essay on optics was the first published mention of this law.[13] One of Descartes most enduring legacies was his development of Cartesian geometry which uses algebra to describe geometry. He also invented the notation which uses

superscripts to show the powers or exponents, for example the 2 used in x2 to indicate squaring.

[edit] Contemporary reception

Although Descartes was well known in academic circles towards the end of his life, the teaching of his works in schools was controversial. Henri de Roy (Henricus Regius, 1598-1679), Professor of Medicine at the University of Utrecht, was condemned by the Rector of the University, Gisbert Voet (Voetius), for teaching Descartes' physics.[14]

[edit] Religious beliefs

The religious beliefs of Ren Descartes have been rigorously debated within scholarly circles. He claimed to be a devout Roman Catholic, claiming that one of the purposes of the Meditations was to defend the Christian faith. However, in his own era, Descartes was accused of harboring secret deist or atheist beliefs. Contemporary Blaise Pascal said that "I cannot forgive Descartes; in all his philosophy he did his best to dispense with God. But he could not avoid making Him set the world in motion with a flip of His thumb; after that he had no more use for God."[15] Stephen Gaukroger's biography of Descartes reports that "he had a deep religious faith as a Catholic, which he retained to his dying day, along with a resolute, passionate desire to discover the truth."[16] After Descartes died in Sweden, Queen Christina abdicated her throne to convert to Roman Catholicism. (Swedish law required a Protestant ruler.) The only Catholic she had prolonged contact with was Descartes, who was her personal tutor.

[edit] Writings

Handwritten letter by Descartes, December 1638.

1618. Compendium Musicae. A treatise on music theory and the aesthetics of music written for Descartes' early collaborator Isaac Beeckman. 16261628. Regulae ad directionem ingenii (Rules for the Direction of the Mind). Incomplete. First published posthumously in 1684. The best critical edition, which includes an early Dutch translation, is edited by Giovanni Crapulli (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966). 16301633. Le Monde (The World) and L'Homme (Man). Descartes' first systematic presentation of his natural philosophy. Man was first published in Latin translation in 1662; The World in 1664. 1637. Discours de la mthode (Discourse on the Method). An introduction to the Essais, which include the Dioptrique, the Mtores and the Gomtrie. 1637. La Gomtrie (Geometry). Descartes' major work in mathematics. There is an English translation by Michael Mahoney (New York: Dover, 1979). 1641. Meditationes de prima philosophia (Meditations on First Philosophy), also known as Metaphysical Meditations. In Latin; a French translation, probably done without Descartes' supervision, was published in 1647. Includes six Objections and Replies. A second edition, published the following year, included an additional objection and reply, and a Letter to Dinet. 1644. Principia philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy), a Latin textbook at first intended by Descartes to replace the Aristotelian textbooks then used in universities. A French translation, Principes de philosophie by Claude Picot, under the supervision of Descartes, appeared in 1647 with a letter-preface to Queen Christina of Sweden. 1647. Notae in programma (Comments on a Certain Broadsheet). A reply to Descartes' one-time disciple Henricus Regius. 1647. The Description of the Human Body. Published posthumously. 1648. Responsiones Renati Des Cartes (Conversation with Burman). Notes on a Q&A session between Descartes and Frans Burman on 16 April 1648. Rediscovered in 1895 and published for the first time in 1896. An annotated bilingual edition (Latin with French translation), edited by Jean-Marie Beyssade, was published in 1981 (Paris: PUF). 1649. Les passions de l'me (Passions of the Soul). Dedicated to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia. 1657. Correspondence. Published by Descartes' literary executor Claude Clerselier. The third edition, in 1667, was the most complete; Clerselier omitted, however, much of the material pertaining to mathematics.

Trigonometry
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"Trig" redirects here. For other uses, see Trig (disambiguation).

The Canadarm2 robotic manipulator on the International Space Station is operated by controlling the angles of its joints. Calculating the final position of the astronaut at the end of the arm requires repeated use of the trigonometric functions of those angles.

All of the trigonometric functions of an angle can be constructed geometrically in terms of a unit circle centered at O. Trigonometry (from Greek trignon "triangle" + metron "measure")[1] is a branch of mathematics that deals with triangles, particularly those plane triangles in which one angle has 90 degrees (right triangles). Trigonometry deals with relationships between the sides and the angles of triangles and with the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships. Trigonometry has applications in both pure mathematics and in applied mathematics, where it is essential in many branches of science and technology. It is usually taught in secondary schools either as a separate course or as part of a precalculus course. Trigonometry is informally called "trig". A branch of trigonometry, called spherical trigonometry, studies triangles on spheres, and is important in astronomy and navigation.

Contents

[hide]

1 History 2 Overview o 2.1 Extending the definitions o 2.2 Mnemonics o 2.3 Calculating trigonometric functions 3 Applications of trigonometry 4 Common formulae o 4.1 Triangle identities 4.1.1 Law of sines 4.1.2 Law of cosines 4.1.3 Law of tangents 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History
Main article: History of trigonometry Development of Trigonometry is not the work of any one man or nation. Its history spans thousands of years and has touched every major civilization. It first originated in India and the basic concepts of angle and measurements have been noted in Vedic texts such as Srimad Bhagavatam.[2] However, trigonometry in its present form was established in Surya-siddhanta and later by Aryabhata 5th century CE. It should be noted that from the time of Hipparchus until modern times there was no such thing as a trigonometric ratio. Instead, the Indian civilization and after them the Greeks and the Muslims used trigonometric lines. These lines first took the form of chords and later half chords, or sines. These chord and sine lines would then be associated with numerical values, possibly approximations, and listed in trigonometric tables.

[edit] Overview

In this right triangle: sin A = a/c; cos A = b/c; tan A = a/b. If one angle of a triangle is 90 degrees and one of the other angles is known, the third is thereby fixed, because the three angles of any triangle add up to 180 degrees. The two acute angles therefore add up to 90 degrees: they are complementary angles. The shape of a right triangle is completely determined, up to similarity, by the angles. This means that once one of the other angles is known, the ratios of the various sides are always the same regardless of the overall size of the triangle. These ratios are given by the following trigonometric functions of the known angle A, where a, b and c refer to the lengths of the sides in the accompanying figure:

The sine function (sin), defined as the ratio of the side opposite the angle to the hypotenuse.

The cosine function (cos), defined as the ratio of the adjacent leg to the hypotenuse.

The tangent function (tan), defined as the ratio of the opposite leg to the adjacent leg.

The hypotenuse is the side opposite to the 90 degree angle in a right triangle; it is the longest side of the triangle, and one of the two sides adjacent to angle A. The adjacent leg is the other side that is adjacent to angle A. The opposite side is the side that is opposite to angle A. The terms perpendicular and base are sometimes used for the opposite and adjacent sides respectively. Many people find it easy to remember what sides of the right triangle are equal to sine, cosine, or tangent, by memorizing the word SOH-CAH-TOA (see below under Mnemonics). The reciprocals of these functions are named the cosecant (csc or cosec), secant (sec) and cotangent (cot), respectively. The inverse functions are called the arcsine, arccosine, and arctangent, respectively. There are arithmetic relations between these functions, which are known as trigonometric identities. With these functions one can answer virtually all questions about arbitrary triangles by using the law of sines and the law of cosines. These laws can be used to compute the remaining angles and sides of any triangle as soon as two sides and an angle or two angles and a side or three sides are known. These laws are useful in all branches of geometry, since every polygon may be described as a finite combination of triangles.

[edit] Extending the definitions

Graphs of the functions sin(x) and cos(x), where the angle x is measured in radians.

Graphing process of y = sin(x) using a unit circle.

Graphing process of y = tan(x) using a unit circle.

Graphing process of y = csc(x) using a unit circle. The above definitions apply to angles between 0 and 90 degrees (0 and /2 radians) only. Using the unit circle, one can extend them to all positive and negative arguments (see trigonometric function). The trigonometric functions are periodic, with a period of 360 degrees or 2 radians. That means their values repeat at those intervals. The trigonometric functions can be defined in other ways besides the geometrical definitions above, using tools from calculus and infinite series. With these definitions the trigonometric functions can be defined for complex numbers. The complex function cis is particularly useful

See Euler's and De Moivre's formulas.

[edit] Mnemonics
A common use of mnemonics is to remember facts and relationships in trigonometry. For example, the sine, cosine, and tangent ratios in a right triangle can be remembered by representing them as strings of letters, as in SOH-CAH-TOA. Sine = Opposite Hypotenuse Cosine = Adjacent Hypotenuse Tangent = Opposite Adjacent The memorization of this mnemonic can be aided by expanding it into a phrase, such as "Silly Old Hitler Couldn't Advance His Troops Over Africa", and "Some Officers Have Curly Auburn Hair Till Old Age"[3] Any memorable phrase constructed of words beginning with the letters S-O-H-C-A-H-T-O-A will serve.

[edit] Calculating trigonometric functions

Main article: Generating trigonometric tables Trigonometric functions were among the earliest uses for mathematical tables. Such tables were incorporated into mathematics textbooks and students were taught to look up values and how to interpolate between the values listed to get higher accuracy. Slide rules had special scales for trigonometric functions. Today scientific calculators have buttons for calculating the main trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan and sometimes cis) and their inverses. Most allow a choice of angle measurement methods: degrees, radians and, sometimes, Grad. Most computer programming languages provide function libraries that include the trigonometric functions. The floating point unit hardware incorporated into the microprocessor chips used in most personal computers have built-in instructions for calculating trigonometric functions.

[edit] Applications of trigonometry

Main article: Uses of trigonometry There are an enormous number of applications of trigonometry and trigonometric functions. For instance, the technique of triangulation is used in astronomy to measure the distance to nearby stars, in geography to measure distances between landmarks, and in satellite navigation systems. The sine and cosine functions are fundamental to the theory of periodic functions such as those that describe sound and light waves. Fields which make use of trigonometry or trigonometric functions include astronomy (especially, for locating the apparent positions of celestial objects, in which spherical trigonometry is essential) and hence navigation (on the oceans, in aircraft, and in space), music theory, acoustics, optics, analysis of financial markets, electronics, probability theory, statistics, biology, medical imaging (CAT scans and ultrasound), pharmacy, chemistry, number theory (and hence cryptology), seismology, meteorology, oceanography, many physical sciences, land surveying and geodesy, architecture, phonetics, economics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, computer graphics, cartography, crystallography and game development.

Marine sextants like this are used to measure the angle of the sun or stars with respect to the horizon. Using trigonometry and a marine chronometer, the position of the ship can then be determined from several such measurements.

[edit] Common formulae

Certain equations involving trigonometric functions are true for all angles and are known as trigonometric identities. There are some identities which equate an expression to a different expression involving the same angles and these are listed in List of trigonometric identities, and then there are the triangle identities which relate the sides and angles of a given triangle and these are listed below.

[edit] Triangle identities

Laws of sines and cosines In the following identities, A, B and C are the angles of a triangle and a, b and c are the lengths of sides of the triangle opposite the respective angles.

[edit] Law of sines

The law of sines (also known as the "sine rule") for an arbitrary triangle states:

where R is the radius of the circumcircle of the triangle:

Another law involving sines can be used to calculate the area of a triangle. If you know two sides and the angle between the sides, the area of the triangle becomes:

[edit] Law of cosines

The law of cosines ( known as the cosine formula, or the "cos rule") is an extension of the Pythagorean theorem to arbitrary triangles:

or equivalently:

[edit] Law of tangents

The law of tangents: