Article ID: CBB001252137

The Grand Astrologer's Platform and Ramp: Four Problems in Solid Geometry from Wang Xiaotong's “Continuation of Ancient Mathematics” (7th Century AD) (2013)

unapi

Wang Xiaotong's Jigu suanjing is primarily concerned with problems in solid and plane geometry leading to cubic equations which are to be solved numerically by the Chinese variant of Horner's method. The problems in solid geometry give the volume of a solid and certain constraints on its dimensions, and the dimensions are required; we translate and analyze four of these. Three are solved using dissections, while one is solved using reasoning about calculations with very little recourse to geometrical considerations. The problems in Wang Xiaotong's text cannot be seen as practical problems in themselves, but they introduce mathematical methods which would have been useful to administrators in organizing labor forces for public works.

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Authors & Contributors
Wagner, Donald B.
Wu, Jiabi
Lim, Tina Su-lyn
Ji, Yongliang
Zhao, Rui-ting
Yuan, Min
Journals
Ziran Kexueshi Yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences)
Nei Menggu Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Ziran Kexue Ban)
Lishi yuyan yanjiuso jikan (Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica)
Journal of Dialectics of Nature
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Publishers
University of Hawai'i Press
Johns Hopkins University
Concepts
East Asia, civilization and culture
Mathematics
Astronomy
Calendars
Primary literature (historical sources)
Agriculture
People
Wang, Xiaotong
Zhang, Wenshou
Yi Xing
Qian, Baocong
Bain, Gang
Time Periods
Tang dynasty (China, 618-907)
Ancient
Song Dynasty (China, 960-1279)
Medieval
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Han dynasty (China, 202 B.C.-220 A.D.)
Places
China
Europe
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