Aryabhata, the name each Indian feels proud to take and hear, obviously needs no introduction. He is one of the first great mathematicians and astronomers of the classic age of India. Though facts about time and place of his birth and death are not confirmed but according to 'Arbhatiya' he was born in Kerala, south India in 476 but later lived in patliputra, modern name patna. Though different theories state different facts about him but actually that does not make any sense. We should be interested in learning what he left behind to explore instead of researching about his birth and death. So in this article my sole purpose is to mention few of his discoveries that made India and people of india proud. Here we go:
1. Place value system and Zero: The place value system, first seen in the 3rd century Bakhshali Manuscript, was clearly in place in his work. While he did not use a symbol for zero, the french mathematician Georges Ifrah argues that Knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhata's place value system as a place holder for the powers of ten with null coefficients, Thus confirmed that Aryabhata knew the zero before the whole world knew it.
2. Algebra: Aryabhata is known to have contributed significantly to Algebra. In a mathematics treatise Aryabhatiya composed by him Aryabhata provided elegant results for the summation of series of squares and cubes.
3. Trigonometry: Aryabhata had defined sine, cosine, versine and inverse sine back in his era, influencing the birth of trignometry. The signs were originally known as jya, kojya, utkram-jya and otkram jya respectively. In his book a sine table was also found.
4. Approximation of π: Aryabhata worked on approximation of pi and got the result accurate up to 5-significant digits and concluded that it is irrational which was quite impressive as the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert.
5. Aryabhata is also said to have contributed in solution of quadratic equations and indeterminate equations.
6. Aryabhata contributed to astronomy significantly. He supported heliocentric theory. He advocated an astronomical model in which earth rotates on its own axis. His model also gave corrections for the speeds of the planets in the sky in terms of the mean speed of the sun.
7. Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata. He explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on earth instead of the prevailing cosmogony in which eclipses were caused by rahu and ketu, two evil planets.
8. Aryabhata contributed to the motions of the solar system. He correctly insisted that the earth rotates about its axis daily and that the apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth contrary to then-prevailing view that the sky rotated.
9. Aryabhata is also reputed to have set up an observatory at the sun temple in Taregana, Bihar.
10. India's first satellite Aryabhata and the lunar crater Aryabhata are named in his honour.
Thank you.
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