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I
went through this news report today that raised
many questions in my mind. I am sure that many
must have provided the answers of the queries
raised by me today
BBC is filming a documentary film ‘The Story of
Maths’ that reveals Indians creating some of the
most fundamental mathematical theories. The
Story of Maths, a four-part series, will be
screened on BBC Four in 2008. Dr Marcus Du
Sautoy, a professor of mathematics at the
University of Oxford, is the man behind the
project. He claims that Indians made many of
these breakthroughs before Newton was born.
Source
The film talks about Aryabhatta (476–550 AD),
who calculated pi, and Brahmagupta (598-670 AD).
It showcases a Gwalior temple, which documents
the first inscription of ‘zero’.
Source
Source
Du Sautoy says, “One of the biggest inventions
in India was the number zero. Indians used it
long before the West did. When the West had
Roman numerals there was no zero and that is why
they were so clumsy. On the other hand,
Brahmagupta was one of the key mathematicians in
the world because he invented the idea of zero.”
The documentary also features the history of
Kerala-born mathematician Madhava (1350-1425)
who created calculus 300 years before Newton and
German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz did. “We
learn that Newton invented the mathematical
theory calculus in the 17th century but Madhava
created it earlier,”
says Du Sautoy.
Chennai-born Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920)
also features in the film. “He contacted English
mathematician G. H. Hardy, who persuaded him to
come to Cambridge. They began a collaboration
between the analytical maths of the West and the
intuitive maths of India, and together produced
brilliant theories and amazing results.”
Source
Why can’t some Indian mathematician from IISc,
IITs, or from so many of Indian universities
where mathematics are taught, go for such an
endeavour?
Why couldn’t India produce a mathematician of
the reputation of Ramanujan in 60 years of
post-independence period?
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Comments: |
Thanks
for elaborating the appreciation of
Indian Mathematics by world. There
is a big reason for thanking you,
that we are not able to know these
good news about us from electronic
media. Everyday, surfing over
channels and channels, we come
across repeated topics like
terrorism, nag-nagin dance, a
husband beaten by her wife,
bar-balas in Delhi and Share Market.
These boring topics are added by
BREAKING NEWS (which are not so
breaking as they boast) and BREAKS.
The good news come silently and pass
away unnoticed. Therefore, the
medium pointing towards these good
news should be thanked and
appreciated.
The media revolution in India had
brought lot of awareness in our
society. But now, it has changed its
nature. The media (especially visual
media) has become sensational. They
are happy sensationalizing every
piece of news. Any news, no matter
how simple, they want to add some
sensation to it. As the saying goes
"WANNA SELL MORE, ADD SALT MORE".
Even the earlier top-ranked media
men like Rajat Sharma, are sitting
for an hour at mid-night to serve
full dose of sex and nudity in the
name of busting call-girls racket.
They go a step further by telling
the exact address of the place of
these activities, so the unaware
also gets aware of these activities
and may get interested in visiting
once. In that way, he is promoting
the business also.
The other dangerous aspect is media
trial. The newspersons ask
pre-tailored questions which could
be answered in only one way. Most of
the times, the questions are
negative which would certainly bring
the dark side of the story. In a 30
minutes program, the media persons
bring their views out and at the
end, they declare a particular
person or group as desired by them.
And the worst part is, nobody is
there to check the authenticity of
the points raised by them.
But the picture is not completely
dark, some Samaritans like
PatnaDaily.Com are trying their best
to keep the essence of
responsibility desirable by the
media of the biggest democracy of
the world. Thanks to Indra and our
dear PatnaDaily. - Ravish Kumar,
Sr. Software Engineer, Hyderabad -
July 16, 2007 |
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