0476 – Aryabhata – bio
Born in the Assak region of central India around 476, Aryabhata was an Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote a text in Sanskrit that is known as the Aryabhatiya. It was written in poetic verse and is a compilation of Indian knowledge of astronomy and mathematics at the time. Through this text, Aryabhata became the father of the Hindu-Arabic system of numbering that we still use today.
The section on astronomy covers:
- a heliocentric model of planetary orbits
- eliptical planetary orbits
- a description of planetary bodies shining because of reflected light
- an estimation of the length of a year (based on solar orbit) as 365 days and 6 hours
- an accurate estimate of the circumference of the Earth
(this remained the most accurate estimation for over a thousand years) - a belief that the axial rotation of the Earth causes the motion of the stars
The mathematical section covers:
- arithmetic (using decimal notation)
- algebra
- plane trigonometry
- spherical trigonometry
- continued fractions
- quadratic equations
- power series
- tables of sines
- an accurate estimation of the value of pi
This text would be translated into Arabic around 820 by al-Khwarizmi, introducing these advanced techniques into the Arabic world. The works of al-Khwarizmi were in turn later translated and migrated into the Italian Renaissance, bringing the HIndu-Arabic numeral system, algebraic techniques, trigonometry and advanced astronomical calculations forward into modern civilization.
PRECURSOR:
-0575 – Pythagoras
-0325 – Euclid
-0190 – Hipparchus
0085 – Ptolemy
SUBSEQUENT:
0598 – Brahmagupta
0780 – al-Khwarizmi
0973 – al-Biruni
1029 – al-Zarqali
1048 – Omar Khayyam