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India at the mathematical crossroads: the pre-modern world's mathematical sciences and their Indian influences

When: Tuesday, March 24, 2015
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Where: Claire T. Carney Library, Stoico/FIRST FED Charitable Foundation Grand Reading Room
Description: Speaker: Dr. Kim Plofker
Spring 2015 Seminar Series for Center for Indic Studies.

For hundreds of years before the rediscovery of ancient Greek texts in the Renaissance temporarily fixed the world's mathematical center of gravity in the Latin scientific literature of Europe, the Indian subcontinent had been a major hub of mathematical innovation and transmission. From decimal place-value numerals in medieval West Asia and Europe, to calendric computations in Southeast Asia, to trigonometric techniques in Chinese astronomy, a significant portion of pre-modern mathematical knowledge emerged from or passed through the vast corpus of India's Sanskrit scientific tradition. This talk explores some of the missing links in the historical development and spread of mathematics that have been reconstructed from the study of Indian sources.

Bio: Kim Plofker is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Union College in New York. She is the author of Mathematics in India (Princeton 2009) and many articles on the history of the exact sciences in India, Islam and early modern Europe.
Topical Areas: University Community, History, Indic Studies, Mathematics, Religious Studies, Center for Indic Studies, Lectures and Seminars