Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development c8.12

c8.12

1. The demonstration of the noted proposition of Pythagoras concerning the square of the base of a rectangular triangle, equal to the squares of the two legs containing a right angle. The demonstration is given in two ways in Bhaskara’s algebra (twelfth century). The first of them is the same which is delivered by Wallis (1616–1703) in his treatise on angular sections, and as far as appears, then given for the first time.
2. The general solution of indeterminate problems of the first degree. It was first given among moderns by Bachet de Meziriac in 1624.
3. Solution of indeterminate problems of the second degree . . . a discovery which among the moderns was reserved for Euler (1707–83). To him among the moderns we owe the remark which the Hindus had made more than a thousand years ago, that the problem was requisite to find all the possible solutions of equations of this sort.