Author(s): Zezhong Yang and Tong Wang

Abstract: The Bi Li Si Xian Xin Biao was an important book compiled by Xue Fengzuo, a famous calendarian and a mathematician living in the end of Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. This book introduced the western trigonometric function logarithm, and received widespread attention and acclaim at that time and the later. However, after analyzing the data in this book carefully, it could be found that about 80% of the data actually were of relatively large deviation, and some of them were even completely wrong. The reason for this might be that Xue Fengzuo misunderstood the nature of the trigonometric function, and used the incorrect calculation method. This showed that, when compiling the book, Xue Fengzuo did not conduct strict logarithmic calculation, instead just did some simple arithmetic operation.

Pages: 26-30 | Views: 751 | Downloads: 17

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