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leftoverresearchquarterly2010-07-25 01:46 pm
alias_sqbr) wrote in leftoverresearchquarterly2010-07-25 01:46 pm
Euclidean maths problems in Japanese temples
This isn't so much leftover as something I found while researching something else: Sangaku, Japanese geometrical puzzles in Euclidean geometry which people placed in temples during the Edo period (1603–1867). Sometimes a mathematician would solve a problem then put the problem but not it's solution in a temple as a way of saying "I have solved this, now you do it!".
Also Japanese mathematicians developed their own form of mathematics parallel to that of the West during the Edo period, though I can't find any concrete descriptions in English of how exactly it differed. They seem to have found a lot of the same theorems as their European contemporaries independently (and sometimes first) but afaict didn't have as advanced techniques of differentiation or any integration and used more geometric series etc. (In particular, no Galois theory afaict. Possibly only interesting to me because I really like Galois Theory :))
This site about Sangaku thinks they weren't as popular nor Japan as cut off as is generally thought.
Also Japanese mathematicians developed their own form of mathematics parallel to that of the West during the Edo period, though I can't find any concrete descriptions in English of how exactly it differed. They seem to have found a lot of the same theorems as their European contemporaries independently (and sometimes first) but afaict didn't have as advanced techniques of differentiation or any integration and used more geometric series etc. (In particular, no Galois theory afaict. Possibly only interesting to me because I really like Galois Theory :))
This site about Sangaku thinks they weren't as popular nor Japan as cut off as is generally thought.