A history of Japanese mathematics
Book Description
One of the first books to show Westerners the nature of Japanese mathematics, this survey highlights the leading features in the development of the wasan, the Japanese system of mathematics. Topics include the use of the soroban, or abacus; the application of sangi, or counting rods, to algebra; the discoveries of the seventeenth-century sage Seki Kowa; the yenri, or circle principle; the work of eighteenth-century geometer Ajima Chokuyen; and Wada Nei’s contributions to the understanding of hypotrochoids. Unabridged republication of the classic 1914 edition. 74 figures. Index.
Table Of Content
1. The Earliest Period
2. The Second Period
3. The Development of the Soroban
4. The Sangi Applied to Algebra
5. The Third Period
6. Seki Kowa
7. Seki's Contemporaries and Possible Western Influences
8. The Yenri or Circle Principle
9. The Eighteenth Century
10. Ajima Chokuyen
11. The Opening of the Nineteenth Century
12. Wada Nei
13. The Close of the Old Wasan
14. The Introduction of Occidental Mathematics
Index