Comment by vee-kay
1 month ago
Fun fact: zero and numerals were not invented by the Arabs. The Arabs learnt the concept & use of mathematical zero, numerals, decimal system, mathematical calculations, etc. from the ancient Hindus/Indians. And from the Arabs, the Europeans learnt it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu-Arabic_numeral_system
Persian scholar Al Khwarizmi translated and used the Hindu/Indian numerals (including concept of mathematical zero) and "Sulba Sutras" (Hindu/Indian methods of mathematical problem solving) into the text Al-Jabr, which the Europeans translated as "Algebra" (yup, that branch of mathematics that all schoolkids worldwide learn from kindergarten).
The word used to mean "empty" (and not algebraic zero) in both Arabic and Sanskrit.
https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/MathEd/index.php/2022/08/25/the...
Origin trivia: Originating from the Sanskrit word for zero शून्य (śuṇya), via the Arabic word صفر (ṣifr), the word "cipher" spread to Europe as part of the Arabic numeral system during the Middle Ages.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cipher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher#Etymology
Fun fact: The Sanskrit word for mathematical zero and emptiness/voidness is the same: Shunya (शून्य). In fact, mathematicians are of the opinion that ancient Indians were among the first to understand the concept of mathematical zero because they understood the meaning of empty/void (Shunyata). Dhyana (meditation by focusing on voidness/stillness, away from random intrusive thoughts) is an aspect of Yoga (world's oldest active fitness discipline).
Another fun fact: The world's oldest recorded cipher (as an example of cryptography/ encryption) is the ancient Indian epic Ramayana by Maharshi Valmiki. It has 24000 verses (Sanskrit shlokas), and the first syllable (akshara) of each 1000th verse/shloka forms a series of 24 syllables that form the sacred Sri Gayatri Mantra.
Proofs of oldest records mathematical zero being of Indian origin, are available..
https://thebetterindia.com/270912/chaturbhuj-temple-in-gwali...
World's oldest known evidence of Mathematical Zero and numerals - ancient inscription on wall of Chaturbhuj temple in Gwalior, India.
https://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/article/carbon-dating-finds-bakhsh...
Bakhshali manuscript (stored in Oxford) from ancient India/Bharat - is the world's oldest text having Mathematical Zero and equations.
may be all for naught, but here's "the last word in combinators": https://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/pgh/amen.html
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Yeah I believe modern trigonometry and the terms sine and cos also trace their origins to Sanskrit through Arabic. It's a shame that ancient/medieval India contributed so much to science and math but hasn't been able to innovate in centuries past :(
The word "Trigonometry" itself is of Sanskrit origin: Tri (three) + kona (corner/angle) + niti (measure). The word "meter" or "metre" is from Sanskrit "Miti" (मिती) (meaning: measure/measurement). The decimal system of weights and counting we all know so well is of Indian origin too.
India was enslaved and exploited for centuries. By the people who stole its ideas and claimed them as their own.
But greatness can only be suppressed for a while, sooner or later, it will show itself.
The world will heal from its wounds, and the truths shall surface again.
India is #5 world economy now, by the way, and will become #3 before the end of this decade. Not bad for a nation that was still a slave just a few decades ago.
Did you know.. Ancient India (subcontinent) was world #1 economy for thousands of years? Guess who made it poor?
I mean i would never dispute that India was enslaved, but I think characterizing it as they were enslaved and all there ideas were stolen is a stretch. If they were so innovative and advanced how were they enslaved? Western institutions were a major advancement, things like the caste system held back India and did not come from the west. Those systems were certainty perpetuated by the west but also be Indian leadership as well the same way slavery held the US back but still was spurred on by southern leadership.
Adopting western institutions is a large reason Japan become the dominant Asian force leading up to ww2.
I think your probably correct they will become the 3rd largest economy but they also have the second largest economy that makes a huge difference. What makes Americas economy insane is they have been about 25-50% of world GDP for the last 100 years despite being less than 5% of the population. In terms of an efficient economy they are a large way to go still but I think they will become very wealth because I agree the country is full of smart people
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Start with love of the domain and a culture of respect working in it, then move to a love of the status and respect, then a focus on those instead of the domain…
And the English word 'algorithm' comes from Al Khwarizmi's name[1].
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi#:~:text=His%20nam...
Ah, but you need to dig deeper, my friend.
"Algorithm" is derived from Al-Khwarizmi, but only because he translated the ancient Indian/Hindu "Sulba Sutras" texts into Persian, especially in his "Al Jabr" text.
"Sulba Sutra" literally means "method of problem solving". So the Sukna Sutras were all basically Algorithms - different ways to solve mathematical and scientific problems.
In fact, Al Khwarizmi himself borrowed the title of the original Indian/Hindu texts for his translations and he even acknowledged their Indian/Hindu origin. That's why the meaning of the full title of the Al Jabr book is "The Concise Book of Calculation by Restoration and Balancing" (because that's how algebraic equations are understood and solved).
This Al Jabr book (based on Hindu methods of problem solving and algebraic equations) got translated and understood by British and Europeans, so they simply named this new (new to them) branch of Mathematics as Algebra (derived from "Al Jabr").
SOURCE: the British scholar "Robert of Chester" who translated the Al Jabr book to Latin (during 1876-2956, published in 1915, under book title "Algebra of al-Khowarizmi") documented that the ancient Indians knew the algebraic equations BEFORE Al Khwarizmi. Not only that, Robert also confirmed the ancient Indians knew and used the Pythagorean triangle theorem before the time of Pythagoras.
You can check and read these evidences for yourself please. Sources are linked below.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181118154937/http://library.al...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_of_Chester
https://archive.org/details/robertofchesters00khuw
Trivia: in 1974, IBM released an advertisement, in which it gave the credit of Algebra to most ancient Indian mathematicians. In the advertisement, IBM had explained 'How India gave the world the logic of indeterminate equations' by naming three prominent historic mathematicians: Aryabhata, Bhaskara and Brahmagupta, who developed the concept of Algebra and gave meaning to something (Zero) which was termed to be meaningless before.
The IBm ad proclaimed: "History owes a debt to three Indian mathematicians of 1500 years ago who developed Algebra to give meaning to the meaningless. Bhaskara, who originated the radical signs. Brahmagupta, who created the symbols. Aryabhata, who worked out the first equations. A search that continues today in new directions with newer tools, among them, a machine that helps man in more ways than any other inventions in history: the computer. We are proud that IBM introduced the manufacturing of computers and other data processing equipment in India, which are helping the nation meet the challenge of building a new tomorrow," reads the IBM advertisement.
IBM's advertisement also features an excerpt 'The Poetry of Algebra' from the book Indian Wisdom by Sir Monier Monier-Williams.
* Among the several contributions made by Aryabhata, he discovered the nine planets and found out the correct number of days in a year i.e. 365. * Brahmagupta made one of the most significant contributions to mathematics when he introduced zero(0), which once stood for “nothing”. * Bhāskara declared that any number divided by zero is infinity and that the sum of any number and infinity is also infinity. * 2000 years before Fibinacci, the Indian scholar Pingala discovered and documented by 200 BC the series we today call as Fibonacci series. Pingala wrote the Chandahśāstra, a treatise on prosody — poetic meter. To study Sanskrit meters, he analyzed long and short syllables, generating combinations using what we would now call binary patterns and recursive enumeration. And in doing so, he uncovered (and documented) the interesting series we today call as Fibonacci series.