Subject: Re: CCL:Semiempirical programs on IR/Raman spectra

From: Ioannis Kerkines <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 13:05:01 +0300 (EET DST)

On Fri, 24 May 2002, Tapas Kar wrote:

> "The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained
> the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British
> scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan’s
> works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European
> mathematicians."

One should be very careful when quoting such allegations regarding such an
important entity in mathematics. The "Rhind papyrus" from Ancient Egypt
dating back to 2000 BC, contains a problem which shows that pi = 4x(8/9)^2
= 3.16045. The 250 BC value of Archimedes (who comes later than Budhayana 
if you are referring to the 6th century BC) is pi = 3.1418.

Of course, by no means am I trying to underestimate the truly remarkable
works of Indian scientists during the years. But the above quotation seems
to be very popular among Internet homepages (perform a Google search for   
"pi Budhayana" to see what I mean).

Best regards,
Ioannis Kerkines
Athens, Greece