Abstract:The aim of this paper is to bring to light a previously unknown geometrical method for extracting the square root in seventh century China. In order to achieve this goal, a seventh century commentary by the scholar Jia Gongyan, 賈公彥, on a Confucian canon, the Rites of Zhou Dynasty [Zhouli 周禮], is analysed. This is compared with the commentary by his contemporary Li Chunfeng, 李淳風, which is referred to in another mathematical book, the Mathematical Procedures of the Five Canons, [Wujing Suanshu 五經筭術]. Although t… Show more
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