The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c17.25
The Science of the Śulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c17.25
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c17.25
It is thus clear that the principle underlying the early Hindu method of construction of an isosceles trapezium similar to a given one but of n times the size of it, n being integral or fractional, is practically the same as that of the given one, only the unit of measurement of the latter being replaced by another √n times it.³ This principle they adopted systematically for the construction of similar figures of more complicated shapes, even when the change in the size does not bear a simple relation to the size of the given figure. Thus arose the proposition: