Sacred Mathematics

by Fukagawa, Hidetoshi

• ISBN13: 9780691127453
• ISBN10: 069112745X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries Japan was totally isolated from the West by imperial decree. During that time, a unique brand of homegrown mathematics flourished, one that was completely uninfluenced by developments in Western mathematics. People from all walks of life--samurai, farmers, and merchants--inscribed a wide variety of geometry problems on wooden tablets calledsangakuand hung them in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan.Sacred Mathematicsis the first book published in the West to fully examine this tantalizing--and incredibly beautiful--mathematical tradition. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Tony Rothman present for the first time in English excerpts from the travel diary of a nineteenth-century Japanese mathematician, Yamaguchi Kanzan, who journeyed on foot throughout Japan to collect temple geometry problems. The authors set this fascinating travel narrative--and almost everything else that is known about temple geometry--within the broader cultural and historical context of the period. They explain the sacred and devotional aspects ofsangaku, and reveal how Japanese folk mathematicians discovered many well-known theorems independently of mathematicians in the West--and in some cases much earlier. The book is generously illustrated with photographs of the tablets and stunning artwork of the period. Then there are the geometry problems themselves, nearly two hundred of them, fully illustrated and ranging from the utterly simple to the virtually impossible. Solutions for most are provided. A unique book in every respect,Sacred Mathematicsdemonstrates how mathematical thinking can vary by culture yet transcend cultural and geographic boundaries.

Author Biography

Fukagawa Hidetoshi is a retired high-school teacher in Japan, and one of the world's experts on "sangaku". He is the coauthor of "Japanese Temple Geometry Problems". Tony Rothman is a theoretical cosmologist who lectures in physics at Princeton University. His books include "Everything's Relative and Other Fables from Science and Technology".

Table of Contents

Foreword by Freeman Dyson	p. ix
Preface by Fukagawa Hidetoshi	p. xiii
Preface by Tony Rothman	p. xv
Acknowledg ments	p. xix
What Do I Need to Know to Read This Book?	p. Xxi
Notation	p. xxv
Japan and Temple Geometry	p. 1
The Chinese Foundation of Japanese Mathematics	p. 27
Japa nese Mathematics and Mathematicians of the Edo Period	p. 59
Easier Temple Geometry Problems	p. 89
Harder Temple Geometry Problems	p. 145
Still Harder Temple Geometry Problems	p. 191
The Travel Diary of Mathematician Yamaguchi Kanzan	p. 243
East and West	p. 283
The Mysterious Enri	p. 301
Introduction to Inversion	p. 313
For Further Reading	p. 337
Index	p. 341
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.