science topics

[Antreas P. Hatzipolakis]

On  Fri, 6 Mar 1998, Alok Kumar wrote:

>I am a new member to this list.  I teach a course on the contributions of
>various ancient civilizations to science at the State University of New
>York, Oswego.  I have seen many science textbooks that indicate that the
>place-value notations, zero, and the trigonometric function "sin" were
>originated in India.  However, I have not seen any recent article that
>provides primary references.  Almost all articles provide secondary
>references. I would appreciate any help on this issue.
>
>Alok Kumar
>Department of Physics
>State University of New York
>Oswego, NY 13126.

On the sin:

A recent interesting paper by the distinguished Math. Historian
Takao Hayashi:
Aryabhata's Rule and Table for Sine-Differences.
Historia Mathematica 24(1997), 396-406
(with a rich bibliography)


Greetings from Athens.

Antreas

PS: Greetings to your colleague George B.