Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art
Nueve capítulos del arte matemático: eliminación gaussiana y números negativos
- Date
- c. 150 BCE - 100 CE · confidence low
- Place
- Chang'an (Xi'an), Han China
- Credited to
- Anonymous compilation of the Han dynasty; commentary by Liu Hui (263)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
Manual with 246 problems that solves linear systems by elimination using counting rods (the fangcheng method, identical to Gaussian elimination), operates with negative numbers, extracts square and cube roots and uses the Gougu theorem (Pythagoras).
The systematic use of negative numbers (red and black rods) predates Brahmagupta by more than 700 years; Liu Hui calculated pi to 3.1416 using a 3,072-sided polygon.
What it led to
- linear algebra
- negative numbers
- Chinese and Japanese mathematics (wasan)
Built on
- Counting rods (decimal place-value numerals)c. 400 BCE
- rod numeral system
- Suan shu shu (Book on Numbers and Computation)