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Mathematics and philology: An example from wasan
Fukagawa and Rothman introduced a difficult wasan problem concerning an ellipse inscribed in a right triangle from an old travel diary. Like the famous Gion Shrine problem, it does not specify numerical data but asks only for an equation of a particular kind; moreover, modern solutions of the proble...
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Published in: | Historia mathematica 2022-11, Vol.61, p.18-24 |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Fukagawa and Rothman introduced a difficult wasan problem concerning an ellipse inscribed in a right triangle from an old travel diary. Like the famous Gion Shrine problem, it does not specify numerical data but asks only for an equation of a particular kind; moreover, modern solutions of the problem entail polynomial equations of degree greater than four. One may therefore wonder whether the problem was recorded correctly. A careful examination of the primary text suggests that problem may have been written in haste, and that the original problem may have been more tractable mathematically.
深川とロスマンの本では, 古い旅行日記から直角三角形に囲まれた楕円に関する難しい和算問題を紹介しています。 これは, 有名な祇園神社の問題のように, 数値データを示さず, ただ方程式での解決を求めています。 さらに, 現在の研究者の分析によると, その解決は5次以上の方程式を避けられません。 したがって, 問題が旅行日記に正しく記録されているかどうかは疑問に思われます。 日記のテキストをよく調べると, 問題は急いで書かれたらしく, 元の問題は, 少し違ってもっと扱いやすかった可能性があります。 |
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ISSN: | 0315-0860 1090-249X |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.hm.2022.05.002 |