About 230BC: Eratosthenes of Cyrene develops his sieve method for finding all prime numbers.About 250 BC: The Maya civilization of Central America uses an almost place-value number system to base 20.On-going - decimal values of pi594: Decimal notation is used for numbers in India. This is the system on which our current notation is based. About 850: Thabit ibn Qurra makes important mathematical discoveries such as the extension of the concept of number to (positive) real numbers, integral calculus, theorems in spherical trigonometry, analytic geometry, and non-euclidean geometry. About 1200: Chinese start to use a symbol for zero. *a pretty big one1489: Widman writes an arithmetic book in German which contains the first appearance of + and - signs. *not mathematically important but significant1617: Napier invents Napier's bones, consisting of numbered sticks, as a mechanical calculator. He explains their function in Rabdologiae (Study of Divining Rods) published in the year of his death. *again not mathematically significant but important.
05-02-2008, 03:08 PM
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