Indian Mathematics c5.9

c5.9

This has been much commented upon but, given a scale of measures based upon the change ratios 3, 4, and 34 (and Baudhāyana actually gives such a scale) the result is only an expression of a direct measurement; and for a side of six feet it is accurate to about 1/7th of an inch; or it is possible that the result was obtained by the approximation √(a²+b) = a + b/2a by TANNERY'S R- process, but it is quite certain that no such process was known to the authors of the *Śulvasūtras*. The only noteworthy character of the fraction is the form with its unit numerators. Neither the value itself nor this form of fraction occurs in any later Indian work.