Chinese Maths

COVERING DISCOVERIES

Arihant Buchcha | 06/07/2019

Why Chinese Maths is so impressive:
Even as mathematical developments in the ancient Greek world were beginning to falter
during the final centuries BCE, the burgeoning trade empire of China was leading Chinese
mathematics to ever greater heights.

The simple but efficient ancient Chinese numbering system, which dates back to at least
the 2nd millennium BCE, used small bamboo rods arranged to represent the numbers 1 to
9, which were then places in columns representing units, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.
It was therefore a decimal place value system, very similar to the one we use today -
indeed it was the first such number system, adopted by the Chinese over a thousand years
before it was adopted in the West - and it made even quite complex calculations very
quick and easy.

Written numbers, however, employed the slightly less efficient system of using a different
symbol for tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. This was largely because there was no concept
or symbol of zero, and it had the effect of limiting the usefulness of the written number in
Chinese.

The use of the abacus is often thought of as a Chinese idea, although some type of abacus
was in use in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, probably much earlier than in China (the
first Chinese abacus, or “suanpan”, we know of dates to about the 2nd Century BCE).

This a Suanpan

WHAT THE CHINESE DID:

The Chinese independently established very big and negative numerals, place-value
decimal system, decimals, a binary system, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

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Ancient Chinese algebraists and arithmeticians made developments in algorithmic
development and algebraic expansion. While the Greek mathematics deteriorated in the
west for the duration of the mediaeval times, the accomplishment of Chinese algebra
reached its acme in the 13th century, when Zhu Shijie devised The Method of Four
unknowns also known as the Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns.

One of the most antiquated subsisting mathematical works is the Yi Jing, which greatly
shaped written works throughout the Zhou Dynasty (1050–256 BC). For Mathematics, the
book comprised an advanced use of hexagrams. Leibniz (a German polymath and
philosopher highly redeemed for his works in the history of maths and philosophy)
pointed out, the I Ching contained elements of binary numbers. However, the modern
binary number system, was invented by Gottfried Leibniz in 1689 and appears in his article
Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire, which is the premise –or the foundation you could
say- for binary code.

The abacus was initially cited in the second century BC, together with 'calculation with
rods' (Suan Zi) in which tiny bamboo sticks are positioned in consecutive squares of a
checkerboard.

From the the Shang period, the Chinese had hitherto completely established a decimal
system. Since premature times, Chinese agreed basic arithmetic (which subjugated far
eastern history) such as: equations, algebra, and negative numbers all with basic counting
rods. This shows the zeal and ingenuity for their arduous work and the dedication and
determination of the Shang dynasty.

Although the Chinese were more focused on arithmetic and advanced algebra for
astronomical uses, they were also the first to develop negative numbers, algebraic
geometry (only Chinese geometry) and the usage of decimals.

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