Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kanishk Gupta
10th B
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
• In the course of present work it has been our
privilege to receive help and assistance from many
quarters. We take great pleasure. In
acknowledging here, our debt to them.
• This endeavor has been possible with the kind and
generous direction and encouragement given by
Mr.Adhikari. We would like to show our gratitude
to him.
• With the help of internet it has become easier to
me to collect data.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. An old surveyor's tele
3. Great Trigonometric Survey
4. Indian mathematics
5. Varahamihira used the formulas
6. SOME BASIC FORMULAS
INTRODUCTION
The basic problem of
trigonometry runs
somewhat like this:
• Why triangles? Because they are the basic building blocks from
which any shape (with straight boundaries) can be constructed.
A square, pentagon or another polygon can be divided into
triangles, say by straight lines radiating from one corner to all
others.
• In mapping a country, surveyors divide it into triangles and
mark each corner by a "benchmark", which nowadays is often a
round brass plate set into the ground, with a dimple in its
center, above which the surveyors place their rods and
telescopes (George Washington did this sort of work as a
teenager). After measuring a baseline--such as AB in the
example of the river--the surveyor would measure (as
described here) the angles it formed with lines to some point
C, and use trigonometry to calculate the distances AC and BC.
These can serve as baselines for 2 more triangles, each of
which provides baselines for two more... and so on, more and
more triangles until the entire country is covered by a grid
involving only known distances. Later a secondary grid may be
added, subdividing the bigger triangles and marking its points
with iron stakes, providing additional known distances on which
any maps and plans can be based.
"Great Trigonometric
Survey"
• The length c of the
baseline, and the two
angles A and B, contain all
there is to know about the
triangle ABC--enough, for
instance, to construct a
triangle of the same size
and shape on some
convenient open field.
Trigonometry (trigon =
triangle) was originally the
art of deriving the missing
information by pure
calculation.
Given enough information to define a triangle, trigonometry
lets you calculate its remaining dimensions and angles.