The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth

The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earthis the first major history in English of the origins and early development of trigonometry. Glen Van Brummelen identifies the earliest known trigonometric precursors in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Greece, and he examines the revolutionary discoveries of Hipparchus, the Greek astronomer believed to have been the first to make systematic use of trigonometry in the second century BC while studying the motions of the stars. The book traces trigonometry's development into a full-fledged mathematical discipline in India and Islam; explores its applications to such areas as geography and seafaring navigation in the European Middle Ages and Renaissance; and shows how trigonometry retained its ancient roots at the same time that it became an important part of the foundation of modern mathematics.The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earthlooks at the controversies as well, including disputes over whether Hipparchus was indeed the father of trigonometry, whether Indian trigonometry is original or derived from the Greeks, and the extent to which Western science is indebted to Islamic trigonometry and astronomy. The book also features extended excerpts of translations of original texts, and detailed yet accessible explanations of the mathematics in them.No other book on trigonometry offers the historical breadth, analytical depth, and coverage of non-Western mathematics that readers will find inThe Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth.

Preface xi The Ancient Heavens 1Chapter 1: Precursors 9 What Is Trigonometry? 9 The Seqed in Ancient Egypt 10 * Text 1.1 Finding the Slope of a Pyramid 11 Babylonian Astronomy, Arc Measurement, and the 360deg; Circle 12 The Geometric Heavens: Spherics in Ancient Greece 18 A Trigonometry of Small Angles? Aristarchus and Archimedes on Astronomical Dimensions 20 * Text 1.2 Aristarchus, the Ratio of the Distances of the Sun and Moon 24Chapter 2: Alexandrian Greece 33 Convergence 33 Hipparchus 34 A Model for the Motion of the Sun 37 * Text 2.1 Deriving the Eccentricity of the Sun's Orbit 39 Hipparchus's Chord Table 41 The Emergence of Spherical Trigonometry 46 Theodosius of Bithynia 49 Menelaus of Alexandria 53 The Foundations of Spherical Trigonometry: Book III of Menelaus's Spherics 56 * Text 2.2 Menelaus, Demonstrating Menelaus's Theorem 57 Spherical Trigonometry before Menelaus? 63 Claudius Ptolemy 68 Ptolemy's Chord Table 70 Ptolemy's Theorem and the Chord Subtraction/Addition Formulas 74 The Chord of 1deg; 76 The Interpolation Table 77 Chords in Geography: Gnomon Shadow Length Tables 77 * Text 2.3 Ptolemy, Finding Gnomon Shadow Lengths 78 Spherical Astronomy in the Almagest 80 Ptolemy on the Motion of the Sun 82 * Text 2.4 Ptolemy, Determining the Solar Equation 84 The Motions of the Planets 86 Tabulating Astronomical Functions and the Science of Logistics 88 Trigonometry in Ptolemy's Other Works 90 * Text 2.5 Ptolemy, Constructing Latitude Arcs on a Map 91 After Ptolemy 93Chapter 3: India 94 Transmission from Babylon and Greece 94 The First Sine Tables 95 Aryabhata's Difference Method of Calculating Sines 99 * Text 3.1 Aryabhata, Computing Sines 100 Bhaskara I's Rational Approximation to the Sine 102 Improving Sine Tables 105 Other Trigonometric Identities 107 * Text 3.2 Varahamihira, a Half-angle Formula 108 * Text 3.3 Brahmagupta, the Law of Sines in Planetary Theory? 109 Brahmagupta's Second-order Interpolation Scheme for Approximating Sines 111 * Text 3.4 Brahmagupta, Interpolating Sines 111 Taylor Series for Trigonometric Functions in Madhava's Kerala School 113 Applying Sines and Cosines to Planetary Equations 121 Spherical Astronomy 124 * Text 3.5 Varahamihira, Finding the Right Ascension of a Point on the Ecliptic 125 Using Iterative Schemes to Solve Astronomical Problems 129 * Text 3.6 Paramesvara, Using Fixed-point Iteration to Compute Sines 131 Conclusion 133Chapter 4: Islam 135 Foreign Junkets: The Arrival of Astronomy from India 135 Basic Plane Trigonometry 137 Building a Better Sine Table 140 * Text 4.1 Al-Samaw'al ibn Yahya al-Maghribi, Why the Circle Should Have 480 Degrees 146 Introducing the Tangent and Other Trigonometric Functions 149 * Text 4.2 Abu'l-Rayhan al-Biruni, Finding the Cardinal Points of the Compass 152 Streamlining Astronomical Calculation 156 * Text 4.3 Kushyar ibn Labban, Finding the Solar Equation 156 Numerical Techniques: Approximation, Iteration, Interpolation 158 * Text .4 Ibn Yunus, Interpolating Sine Values 164 Early Spherical Astronomy: Graphical Methods and Analemmas 166 * Text 4.5 Al-Khwarizmi, Determining the Ortive Amplitude Geometrically 168 Menelaus in Islam 173 * Text 4.6 Al-Kuhi, Finding Rising Times Using the Transversal Theorem 175 Menelaus's Replacements 179 Systematizing Spherical Trigonometry: Ibn Mucadh's Determination of the Magnitudes and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's Transversal Figure 186 Applications to Religious Practice: The Qibla and Other Ritual Needs 192 * Text 4.7 Al-Battani, a Simple Approximation to the Qibla 195 Astronomical Timekeeping: Approximating the Time of Day Using the Height of the Sun 201 New Functions from Old: Auxiliary Tables 205 * Text 4.8 Al-Khalili, Using Auxiliary Tables to Find the