23/04/03

Sines in terse verse

By: Roddam Narasimha

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<h1>Sines in terse verse</h1>
<h4>By: Roddam Narasimha</h4>
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<p>Writing in 449 CE, the Indian astronomer-mathematician Âryabhata created a code that provided an ingenious solution to the problem of writing mathematics in terse verse.<BR><BR>In Âryabhata’s system, the 25 ‘classified’ consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet, <em>k</em> to <em>m</em>, stand for the numbers 1 to 25; the eight unclassified consonants <em>y to h</em> stand for the numbers 30 to 100 in steps of 10. The place value is indicated by the nine vowels <em>a</em> to <em>au</em> progressively from 1000 to 1008 in steps of 100.<BR><BR>Huge numbers can in this system be represented by short, synthetic words.<BR><BR>Reference: <em>Nature</em> 414, 851 (2001)<BR><BR><a href="http://www.nature.com/login/scidev_login.taf?ref=/nature/journal/v414/n6866/full/414851a_fs.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full text</A></p>

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Writing in 449 CE, the Indian astronomer-mathematician Âryabhata created a code that provided an ingenious solution to the problem of writing mathematics in terse verse.

In Âryabhata’s system, the 25 ‘classified’ consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet, k to m, stand for the numbers 1 to 25; the eight unclassified consonants y to h stand for the numbers 30 to 100 in steps of 10. The place value is indicated by the nine vowels a to au progressively from 1000 to 1008 in steps of 100.

Huge numbers can in this system be represented by short, synthetic words.

Reference: Nature 414, 851 (2001)

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