Aryabhata – Ancient India, 470-550
Aryabhata was the first of many great mathematicians to come from the empire of India. Where Geometry had taken root in the West (Greece and Rome), the Indian people took math in a new direction – Algebra. Aryabhata was one of the first people to use letters to represent variables. He also invented the place-value system we use today. Most impressively, he approximated the value of pi to the ten-thousandths, the most accurate measurement of the time, and first declared that pi was irrational. Many other Indian mathematicians would follow Aryabhata’s lead and make major math contributions.
Question of the Week: What was the name of Aryabhata’s astronomy textbook?