Sangaku (temple geometry tablets)
Sangaku (problemas geométricos en tablillas votivas)
- Date
- 1683 (tablilla más antigua conservada) · confidence medium
- Place
- Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
- Credited to
- Anonymous wasan mathematicians and amateurs
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
Wooden tablets hung in temples and shrines bearing solved geometry problems, often about inscribed circles. They show a popular mathematical culture that was widespread in isolated Edo-period Japan.
Some 900 tablets are known; some anticipate results published later in Europe.
What it led to
- the spread of wasan mathematics outside the schools
- theorems such as Casey's or Soddy's circles found independently