7 ms·
I’d like to know more, can you point me in the direction of institutions of the period where this was taught? What are some of the highlights?
by artificial 9y ago
I’d like to know more, can you point me in the direction of institutions of the period where this was taught? What are some of the highlights?
- gumby 9y agoThe simplest would be just to start with "Avicenna" and "al-Jazari" and get lost down the wikipedia rabbit hole. Also: take a look at why we have a subject called "algebra" while we have a 17th century system "calculus" named after the roman word for pebble. Nicely, the Wikipedia's entry for "algorithm" starts with the etymology of the word, which combines these threads (Hindu scholars -> Islamic scholars -> medieval scholars)º. BTW the Indian counting system's roots appear to lie in Babylonian sexagesimal counting but the Indians appear to be the first to figure out position numeration and do 5/10-based arithmetic quickly and simply by taking advantage of it. º And doesn't mention the congressional funding of the Internet at all (if you remember that hoary joke)
- dekhn 9y agoI started at the Avicenna and Al Jaziri wikipedia pages and did the equivalent of DFS on outlinks until I stopped seeing new pages. It took a while, but now I know more about 10th century hydrological engineering in Northern Africa than I did before...