A History of Japanese Mathematics

by David Eugene Smith

Overview

Wasan, the word for Japanese mathematics, was not coined until it confronted the mathematics of the west, the yoson of Dutch traders and Jesuit missionaries. In this unabridged reprint of the 1914 edition, the authors examine the yenri, or Japanese circle principal of calculus, sangi, a collection of rods used in higher mathematics, and the social mores that relegated the soroban, or abacus, to the business class. They examine the work of notable Japanese mathematicians, including Seki, Ajima, and Wada, and how the introduction of yoson was not necessarily an improvement. Annotation © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602066649
Publisher:	Cosimo Classics
Publication date:	06/01/2007
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

I.	The Earliest Period	1
II.	The Second Period	7
III.	The Development of the Soroban	18
IV.	The Sangi applied to Algebra	47
V.	The Third Period	59
VI.	Seki Kowa	91
VII.	Seki's Contemporaries and possible Western Influences	128
VIII.	The Yenri or Circle Principle	143
IX.	The Eighteenth Century	163
X.	Ajima Chokuyen	195
XI.	The Opening of the Nineteenth Century	206
XII.	Wada Nei	220
XIII.	The Close of the Old Wasan	230
XIV.	The Introduction of Occidental Mathematics	254
	Index	281