Bhāskara (1114-1185), also called Bhāskara II and Bhāskarācārya ("Bhaskara the teacher") was an Indian mathematician. He was born near Bijjada Bida in Bijapur district, Karnataka and became head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, continuing the mathematical tradition of Varahamihira and Brahmagupta. Events January 7 - Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, marries Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor Births Deaths Categories: 1114 ... Events April 25 - Genpei War - Sea Battle of Dan-no-ura leads to Minamoto victory in Japan Templars settle in London and begin the building of New Temple Church End of the Heian Period and beginning of the Kamakura period in Japan. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... Bijapur is a district in the Indian state of Karnataka. ... Karnataka (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ in Kannada) is one of the four southern states of India. ... In ancient Greece and other early civilizations, astronomy consisted largely of astrometry, measuring positions of stars and planets in the sky. ... Ujjain (also known as Ujain, Ujjayini, Avanti) is an ancient city of central India, in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh, on the right bank of the Kshipra River. ... Varahamihira (505 in Ujjain – 587) was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer. ... Brahmagupta (ब्रह्मगुप्त) (598_668) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer. ...

In many ways, Bhaskaracharya represents the peak of mathematical knowledge in the 12th century. He reached an understanding of the number systems and solving equations, which was not to be achieved anywhere else in the world for several centuries. His main works are the Lilavati (dealing with arithmetic), Bijaganita (algebra) and Siddhantasiromani which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets). Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number) in common usage is a branch of (or the forerunner of) mathematics which records elementary properties of certain operations on numerals, though in usage by professional mathematicians, it often is treated as a synonym for number theory. ... Algebra is a branch of mathematics which studies structure and quantity. ... A sphere is, roughly speaking, a ball-shaped object. ... A planet (from the Greek πλανήτης, planētēs which means wanderer or more forcefully vagrant, tramp) is an object in orbit around a star that is not a star in its own right. ...

Contributions

He conceived of differential calculus five centuries before Newton and Leibnitz, who are popularly considered to be it's founders. An example of what is now called "differential coefficient" and the basic idea of what is now known as "Rolle's theorem" can be seen in his writings (Madhava (1340 CE) and the Kerala school further advanced the development of calculus in India). Madhava is another name for Vishnu and appears as the 72nd, 167th and 735th names in the Vishnu sahasranama. ...

He worked with the equation popularly attributed to Pell, several centuries before Pell. Pells equation is any Diophantine equation of the form where n is a nonsquare integer. ...

He developed a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem by calculating the same area in two different ways and then canceling out terms to get   a² + b² = c². The theorems diagram In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem or Pythagoras theorem is a relation in Euclidean geometry between the three sides of a right triangle. ... Area is a quantity expressing the size of a figure in Euclidean plane or surface. ...

He is also known to have proven that anything divided by zero is infinity in addition to establishing that infinity divided by anything remains infinity.

Legend

The Lilavati, his book on arithmetic, is the source of many interesting legends that assert that it was written for his daughter, Lilavati. Per one story, Bhaskara predicted (using astrology) that her husband would die soon after her marriage. To prevent that, he would perform the marriage at a precise time that he would measure using a special device. He put the device in a room with warnings to Lilavati to not go near it. In her curiosity though, she peers into the device and a pearl from her nose ring accidentally drops into it, thus upsetting it. The marriage takes place off-schedule and she is widowed early. Bhaskara is said to have taught her mathematics to console her in her grief and to have written the book for her.

See also

• Bhaskara I
• Indian mathematicians

Bhaskara I, 7th century Indian mathematician, gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhatas work. ... Here is a chronology of the main Indian mathematicians: BC Yajnavalkya, 1800 BC, the author of the altar mathematics of the Shatapatha Brahmana. ...

External links

• Biography at the MacTutor archive
• Bhaskara
• Calculus in Kerala