Āryabhaṭa
A figure from the books
#Aryabhata
Āryabhaṭa · 476–550 CE
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Astronomy and mathematics — founder of the classical Indian siddhānta tradition's boldest school.
“The first Indian scientist we can date to the year dated himself — 499 CE, age twenty-three — and the claim he timestamped, that the earth rotates, was so far ahead of its time that his own tradition spent a thousand years arguing with it, editing it, and finally, in 1975, naming its first satellite after him.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“The sky does not turn; the earth spins, and the stars only seem to wheel westward — the same illusion that makes the riverbank drift backward when your boat moves. He wrote that down, with a sine table, a four-decimal π and the true cause of eclipses, in 121 verses, at the age of twenty-three.”
From the book
Read the chapter
I haven't posted on #Aryabhata yet, outside the book.
Ask me about #Aryabhata
Send me a question. It stays private. I answer the best ones publicly, as “You asked”.
Send me a question