The legend of ancient Indian mathematics.
Mathematics is the most concentrated, profound, and typical reflection of the heights that human rational and logical thinking can reach, so the great mathematician, physicist and astronomer of the 11th century, Gauss, said, "Mathematics is the king of science." ”
It is said that in the time of King Shehan in India, King Shehan issued an order: Whoever can invent something that entertains people, and makes people increase their knowledge and make their minds wiser in entertainment, the king will make him an official for life, and the valuables in the palace will be left to his choice. So, the skilled craftsmen of the whole country moved one after another, and one after another of the inventions and creations were sent to the king of Shehan, but none of them satisfied him.
It was a sunny morning, and King Shehan, bored, prepared to go fishing on Lake Gratsa with all the Aiqing. King Shehan suddenly noticed that the prime minister, Sisar Ban Dayir, had not come with him, and asked, "What is the prime minister doing?""The prime minister is thinking about it there because there is something in the palace that has not been dealt with. One of the ministers replied. King Shehan did not ask any questions, but picked up the fishing rod and fished the fish, and all Aiqing were busy, so the long rod pointed to the center of the lake.
At this time, the small lake rippled slightly, and the surface of the lake shimmered with diamonds and emeralds under the sunlight, dazzling people to blink. The branches of the weeping willows bathe in the water of the lake, and the shores of the lake are covered with calamus. In a moment the sun was obscured by a thin cloud, and the sun seemed to turn its face away suddenly, ignoring the little lake, and the lake, the village, and the woods all dimmed in an instant;As soon as the clouds passed, the lake sparkled again, and the crops seemed to be plated.
King Shehan greedily breathed in the fresh air of the country, and the beauty before him was so dizzy that he even lay his fishing rod on the surface of the lake. At this moment, someone came to report: Prime Minister Dayil Pegasus has arrived. Dayil hurriedly dismounted, came to the front of the king of Shehan, and said: "Your Majesty, the minister has been pondering at home for many days, and finally invented chess, I wonder if the king is satisfied?"”
When King Shehan heard this, he hurriedly said, "What kind of chess, hurry up and take a look." It turned out that the prime minister had superhuman intelligence and a brilliant mind, and was especially fond of invention and rigorous mathematical reasoning. The chess he invented was chess, and the entire chessboard was made up of 64 small squares.
There are 32 chess pieces, 16 on each side, including one king, one queen, two shi, two horses, two rooks, and eight pawns. The pieces of both sides move in the grid to eliminate the opponent's king. When the king of Shehan saw this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly beckoned other ministers to play with him, and for a while, the horse's hooves and pawns arched, and the chariot galloped, and after a while, the king of Shehan won a great victory. King Shehan then planned to reward his prime minister, so he said: "The official can no longer be sealed, you have already achieved the top, if you want to seal again, I am afraid that only I will give way." Now reward you with your possessions, what do you want?”
The prime minister knelt before the king and said, "Your Majesty, you have nothing to ask for for your courtiers, but to give me one grain of wheat in the first compartment of this chessboard, two grains in the second compartment, four grains in the third compartment, and eight grains in the fourth compartment." In short, each tile is doubled compared to the previous one. Your Majesty, give me all the 64 bars of wheat on the chessboard, and I will be satisfied. ”
It seemed that the wise prime minister did not have much appetite, so the king said: "Aiqing, you don't ask for much, of course you will get your wish." "The king thought that the generous reward he had promised for such a marvelous invention would not go to waste.
A lot of joy and secret joy. And they brought a sack of wheat to the throne. The work of counting the wheat grains begins. Put one grain in the first compartment, two grains in the second compartment, and before the 20th compartment, the bag is already empty. Sacks and sacks of wheat were carried before the king.
But the number of grains of wheat grew so rapidly one block after another, that at first it was carried by men, then by horse-drawn carts, and then at all, not even a grain depot could fill a small grid. It soon became clear that even if all India was fed, the king would not be able to keep the promise he had made to the prime minister.
What the hell is going on, let's calculate how many grains of wheat this prime minister wants:
The above equation is the wheat grain that the prime minister needs, let us use modern mathematical methods to calculate the result, namely:
This number is not as large as the total number of atoms in the universe, but it is quite impressive. 1 bushel (c. 35.)2 liters) There are about 5 million grains of wheat, and at this amount, the prime minister will have to bring four trillion bushels. What the prime minister is asking for is all the wheat that the world has produced in 2000 years!In this way, King Shehan felt that he couldn't fulfill his golden words, what should he do?A minister offered a plan to find a reason to kill his head. The head of the Prime Minister Cesar Ban Dayil was thus enshrined on the altar of mathematics.
The above story may have been made up by a previous person, but it is just a legend. But it illustrates the fact that ancient India had made considerable achievements in the mathematical sciences.