Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c11: V. Co-ordinate Geometry
Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c11
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V. Co-ordinate Geometry
c11.2
VACHASPATI (A.D. 850), the Doctor of Nyaya (logic), anticipated in a rudimentary way the principle of co-ordinate (solid) geometry eight centuries before Descartes (1596-1650).
c11.3
Vachaspati's claims are thus presented by Seal:
c11.4
"To conceive position in space, Vachaspati takes three axes, one proceeding from the point of sunrise in the horizon to that of sunset, on any particular day (roughly speaking, from the east to the west); a second bisecting this line at right angles on the horizontal plane (roughly speaking, from the north to the south); and the third proceeding from the point of their section up to the meridian section of the sun on that day (roughly speaking, up and down). The position of any point in space, relatively to another point, may now be given by measuring distances along these three directions, i.e., by arranging in a numerical series the intervening points of contact, the lesser distance being that which comes earlier in this series, and the greater which comes later. The position of any single atom in
c11.5
space with reference to another may be indicated in this way with reference to the three axes.
c11.6
"But this gives only a geometrical analysis of the conception of three-dimensioned space, though it must be admitted in all fairness that by dint of clear thinking it anticipates in a rudimentary manner the foundations of solid (co-ordinate) geometry."