A possible likeness of Liu Hui on japanpostage stamp

This is a Chinese name; the family name is 劉 (Liu).

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Liu Hui 劉徽 was a Chinese mathematician who lived in the 200s in the Wei Kingdom. In 263 he published a book with solutions to mathematical problems presented in the famous Chinese book of mathematics known as Jiuzhang Suanshu or The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 455 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (473 × 623 pixel, file size: 79 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Mathematician Liu Hui on a postage stamp. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 455 × 599 pixel Image in higher resolution (473 × 623 pixel, file size: 79 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Mathematician Liu Hui on a postage stamp. ... A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A Chinese surname, family name (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) or clan name (氏; pinyin: shì), is one of the hundreds or thousands of family names that have been historically used by Han Chinese and Sinicized Chinese ethnic groups in mainland China, Taiwan, and among overseas Chinese communities. ... Liu is a Chinese family name. ... Image File history File links Zhongwen. ... 漢字 / 汉字 Chinese character in Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja, Hán Tá»±. Red in Simplified Chinese. ... Leonhard Euler is considered by many to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time A mathematician is the person whose primary area of study and research is the field of mathematics. ... Centuries: 2nd century - 3rd century - 4th century Decades: 150s - 160s - 170s - 180s - 190s - 200s - 210s - 220s - 230s - 240s - 250s Years: 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 Significant people Septimius Severus, Roman Emperor Categories: 200s ... The Kingdom of Wei (ch. ... Events The Wei Kingdom conquered the kingdom of Shu Han, one of the Chinese Three Kingdoms. ... The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (九章算術) is a Chinese mathematics book, probably composed in the 1st century AD, but perhaps as early as 200 BC. This book is the earliest surviving mathematical text from China that has come down to us by being copied by scribes and (centuries later...

In these commentaries he presented (among other things):

• an estimate of π in the comments to chapter 1. He estimated pi to 3.141014 with a 192 sided polygon and later calculated pi as 3.14159 by using a 3072 sided polygon. He suggested that 3.14 was a good approximation. His estimation is made with a method similar to Archimedes. The Nine Chapters used the value 3 as π, but Zhang Heng had previously estimated it to the square root of 10;
• Gaussian elimination;
• Cavalieri's principle to find the volume of a cylinder.

The commentaries often include explanations why some methods work and why others do not. He also presented, in a separate appendix called Haidao suanjing or The Sea Island Mathematical Manual, several problems related to surveying. When a circles diameter is 1, its circumference is Ï€. The mathematical constant Ï€ is an irrational real number, approximately equal to 3. ... Archimedes (Greek: c. ... The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (九章算術) is a Chinese mathematics book, probably composed in the 1st century AD, but perhaps as early as 200 BC. This book is the earliest surviving mathematical text from China that has come down to us by being copied by scribes and (centuries later... Zhāng Héng Replica of Zhang Hengs seismometer Houfeng Didong Yi For other uses, see Zhang Heng (disambiguation). ... In mathematics, Gaussian elimination (not to be confused with Gauss–Jordan elimination), named after Carl Friedrich Gauss, is an algorithm in linear algebra for determining the solutions of a system of linear equations, for determining the rank of a matrix, and for calculating the inverse of an invertible square matrix. ... Bonaventura Cavalieri (1598–1647) was an Italian mathematician whose legacy includes early work on logarithms and geometry, including the rule known today as Cavalieris principle. ... Surveyor at work with a leveling instrument. ...

Liu was one of the first mathematicians known to leave roots unevaluated, giving more exact results instead of approximations.

Liu's work has been translated into French by Guo Shuchun, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who began this work in 1985 and took twenty years to complete it. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese: 中国科学院; pinyin: Zhōngguó Kēxuéyuàn), formerly known as Academia Sinica (not to be confused with Taiwans Academia Sinica currently headquartered in Taipei which shares the same root), is the national academy for the natural sciences of the Peoples Republic of...

External links

• Liu Hui at MacTutor

References

• Chen, Stephen. "Changing Faces: Unveiling a Masterpiece of Ancient Logical Thinking." South China Morning Post, Sunday, January 28, 2007.
• Needham, Joseph & C. Cullen (Eds.) (1959). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume III, section 19. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05801-5.