Aryabhatta
Aryabhatta was the first major
mathematician and astronomer from the classical age of India.
His works include Aryabhatiya and the
Arya-Siddhanta.
His most famous work was compiled
when he was just 23 years old.
‘Ayrabhatiya’ covers several branches
of mathematics such as Algebra, Arithmetic, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry.
His principal focus was mathematics;
he went into extraordinary insight about arithmetic and geometric movements
like 2, 4, 6, and 8 or 2, 10, 50, and 250.
He formulated a brilliant technique
for finding the lengths of chords of circles with half chords as opposed to the
full chord strategy utilised by the Greeks.
He came up with an approximation of
pi.
He was the first mathematician to
give what later came to be known as the tables of sine, cosine and converse
sine to four decimal spots, which brought forth trigonometry.
Aryabhatta has named the initial 10
decimal places and derived the methods for extracting square roots, summing
arithmetic series and solving indeterminate equations of the type ax – by = c.
Aryabhatta worked on the place value
system and discovered zero for the
first
time, making use of letters to indicate
numbers and pointing out
qualities.
He stated correctly the number of
days in a year to be 365, alongside the seven-day week and about an intercalary
month embedded into a year to make the calendar adjust to the seasons.
He discovered the position of nine planets and expressed that these
likewise rotated around the sun.
He also provided the circumference
and measurement of the Earth and the radius of the Earth and the radius of 9
planets.
Aryabhatta challenged many
superstitious theories. Aryabhatta also gave a theory on eclipse; he said it
wasn’t because of Rahu, but because of shadows cast by the earth and moon.
Aryabhatta pronounced that the moon
has no light of its own. It is visible because it mirrors the light of the sun.
He concluded that the earth is round.
He also stated that it rotates on its own axis, which is why we have days and
night.
Another discipline Aryabhatta
explored was astronomy; he concentrated on a few geometric and trigonometric
parts of the celestial sphere that are still used to study stars.
In his old age, Aryabhatta composed
another treatise, ‘Aryabhatta-Siddhanta’. It’s a booklet for every day astronomical
calculations as well as a guide to examine auspicious times for performing
rituals. To this very day, astronomical data provided in this text is used for
preparing Panchangs (Hindu calendars).
India’s first satellite was named after him.
There is also an Indian
research centre iscalled ‘Aryabhatta Research Institute Of
Observational
Sciences’ in Nainital.
