Fleeting Footsteps: Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient ChinaThe HinduOCoArabic numeral system (1, 2, 3, ...) is one of mankind''sgreatest achievements and one of its most commonly usedinventions. How did it originate? Those who have written about thenumeral system have hypothesized that it originated in India; however, there is little evidence to support this claim. This book provides considerable evidence to show that theHinduOCoArabic numeral system, despite its commonly accepted name, has its origins in the Chinese rod numeral system. This system waswidely used in China from antiquity till the 16th century. It was usedby officials, astronomers, traders and others to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other arithmetic operations, and also used by mathematicians to develop arithmetic andalgebra. Based on this system, numerous mathematical treatises werewritten." |
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ancient Chinese Answer Arabic becomes the divisor Brahmi numerals calls the lower century China Chinese mathematics computation concept counting board counting rods cube deficit deng shu denominators digit dividend shi dynasty equations Find the number Fleeting Footsteps follows fractions give grade cereal greatest common divisor Hindu-Arabic numeral system hu and divide hundreds Jin shu Jiu zhang suanshu large numbers last place left column length Li Chunfeng liang Liu Hui lower numeral lower position Luoyang middle position millet multiplication and division number of persons number word obtain the number place value notation Prob problem procedure proportional value Qian quotient remainder right column rod numeral system Sect shang sheng shi zhi square root Step subtraction Sun Zi suanjing Tang dynasty thousands top position translation units upper numeral upper position wan wan written numeral Yang Hui ying ying bu Zhu Shijie