Aryabhata

Aryabhata the Elder

Born: 476 in Kusumapura, India
Died: 550 in India

Previous (Chronologically) Next     Biographies Index

Previous ( Alphabetically) Next          Welcome page
Aryabhata wrote Aryabhatiya , finished in 499, which is a summary of Hindu mathematics up to that time, written in verse. It gives formulas for the areas of a triangle and a circle which are correct, but the formulas for the volumes of a sphere and a pyramid are wrong.

Aryabhatiya also contains continued fractions, quadratic equations, sums of power series and a table of sines. Aryabhata gave an accurate approximation for pi and was one of the first known to use algebra. He also taught that the apparent rotation of the heavens was due to the axial rotation of the Earth.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Aryabhata's contribution to trigonometry

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. B Datta, Two Aryabhatas of al-Biruni, Bull. Calcutta Math. Soc. 17 (1926), 59-74.
  4. H-J Ilgauds, Aryabhata I, in H Wussing and W Arnold, Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker (Berlin, 1983). 
Previous (Chronologically) Next     Biographies Index

Previous ( Alphabetically) Next          Welcome page

History Topics Index              Famous curves index

Chronologies                           Birthplace Map

Mathematicians of the day  Anniversaries for the year

Search Form   Simple Search Form   Search Suggestions
JOC/EFR February 1996