Sangaku or San Gaku (算額; lit. mathematical tablet) are Japanese theorems in Euclidean geometry discovered almost entirely during the Edo period (1603-1867) by members of all social classes.
During this period Japan was completely isolated from the rest of the world so the theorems were created using Japanese mathematics, (wasan), not influenced by western mathematical thought. For example, the fundamental connection between an integral and its derivative was unknown so problems on areas and volumes were solved by expansions in infinite series and term-by-term calculation.
The theorems were painted in color on wooden tablets which were hung in the precincts of temples and shrines as offerings to the gods. Many of these tablets were lost following during the period of modernisation that followed the Edo period but around nine hundred are known to remain. The theorems were published for the first time in 1989 by Hidetosi Fukagawa and Dan Pedoe in the book Japanese Temple Geometry Problems.
See also
Further Reading
- Japanese Temple Geometry Problems: San Gaku. H. Fukagawa and D. Pedoe. (Charles Babbage Research Centre. 1989)
External links