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| ARYABHATA
The
first Indian built satellite launched by a Soviet Union rocket
in 1975 was in honor of this eminent astronomical; scientist
and mathematician who lived during 476-551. It was believed
in the early period of science that Aryabhata lived in Pataliputra
of Magadha kingdom of the past (now called Patna) near the
famous Nalanda University which encouraged the study of astronomy.
But scholars now accept that he lived and worked in Kerala.
Aryabhata's
greatest work is "ARYBHATEEYAM" which was written at his age
of 23. Aryabhateeyam is a scholarly treatise on mathematics
and astronomy in which he has been introduced many new concepts
Extraction of a square and cube roots, construction of trigonometric
tables and eccentric- epicentric models of planetary notion.
In other words, Aryabhateeyam is a literal work containing
4 quadruplets of 121 hymns. Out of these quadruplets, one
group is of poetic quality, the second one is of arithmetic,
the third one is of planetesimals and the fourth one is with
time and activity. All these quadruplets contain discussions
on the rotary and revolutionary processes of planets, determination
of days and nights, movementary directions of planets, determination
of neons, determinations of weeks and months, eclipses, sunrise,
sunset, appearance of planets, comets, Dooms day discussions
on all these aspects have been vividly explained in a very
lucid style of Aryabhatta. His major contribution to the field
of astronomy and mathematics was the most value of 'pi' as
3.1416 because 'pi' is the sign of the value of the radius
and perimeter of a circle. In geometry, the use of 'pi' is
very common "The earth is a geoid body and it rotates on its
own axis" This fact and other fact that the stars moved in
an eastward direction were proved with demonstration by Aryabhata
with illustrative examples. Till such time people believed
that the earth was a stationary object.
Algebra
was brought to light only by Aryabhata. He gave the world,
complete details of capital amount and the details of interest
to be levied on the principle amount and also the necessary
formula to be adopted in this aspect.
To
conclude, Aryabhata continues to be a pole-star for many more
new investigations in astronomy, his formulas in solving many
astronomical problems are very simple and are accepted and
are adopted even to day.
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