Mathematician

Indian mathematician and astronomer.

One of the first to identify zero as a number in its own right.

He was so influential that his works were still being copied by as late as $1800$.

Indian

History

• Born: 1114 in Vijayapura, near Bijjada Bida (in present day Bijapur district, Karnataka state), South India
• Died: 1185 in Ujjain, India

Theorems and Definitions

• A proof of Pythagoras' Theorem by dropping a perpendicular and investigating the relations between the ratios of the sides of the resulting similar triangles.

Results named for Bhaskara II Acharya can be found here.

Publications

All written in ca. $1150$:

• Lilavati ("The Beautiful", about arithmetic, in particular rules for divisibility by $9$, $3$, $5$, $7$ and $11$)
• Siddhanta Shiromani (or Siddhantasiromani) which consists of two parts:
• Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets).
It contains sine tables and various trigonometric relations.
• Vasanabhasya of Mitaksara (Bhaskara's own commentary on the Siddhanta Shiromani)
• Karanakutuhala (Calculation of Astronomical Wonders) or Brahmatulya (a simplified version of the Siddhanta Shiromani)
• Vivarana (a commentary on the Shishyadhividdhidatantra of Lalla.

Notable Quotes

Behold!
-- on demonstrating a proof of Pythagoras's Theorem

The second value is in this case not to be taken, for it is inadequate; people do not approve of negative roots.
-- on negative roots