{"product_id":"the-chinese-roots-of-linear-roger-hart-9780801897559","title":"The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra","description":"\u003cp\u003eA monumental accomplishment in the history of non-Western mathematics, \u003ci\u003eThe Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra\u003c\/i\u003e explains the fundamentally visual way Chinese mathematicians understood and solved mathematical problems. It argues convincingly that what the West \"discovered\" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had already been known to the Chinese for 1,000 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccomplished historian and Chinese-language scholar Roger Hart examines \u003ci\u003eNine Chapters of Mathematical Arts\u003c\/i\u003e--the classic ancient Chinese mathematics text--and the arcane art of \u003ci\u003efangcheng\u003c\/i\u003e, one of the most significant branches of mathematics in Imperial China. Practiced between the first and seventeenth centuries by anonymous and most likely illiterate adepts, \u003ci\u003efangcheng\u003c\/i\u003e involves manipulating counting rods on a counting board. It is essentially equivalent to the solution of systems of \u003ci\u003eN\u003c\/i\u003e equations in \u003ci\u003eN\u003c\/i\u003e unknowns in modern algebra, and its practice, Hart reveals, was visual and algorithmic. \u003ci\u003eFangcheng\u003c\/i\u003e practitioners viewed problems in two dimensions as an array of numbers across counting boards. By \"cross multiplying\" these, they derived solutions of systems of linear equations that are not found in ancient Greek or early European mathematics. Doing so within a column equates to Gaussian elimination, while the same operation among individual entries produces determinantal-style solutions. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMathematicians and historians of mathematics and science will find in \u003ci\u003eThe Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra\u003c\/i\u003e new ways to conceptualize the intellectual development of linear algebra.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Roger Hart\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0801897556\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780801897559\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Johns Hopkins University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/02\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eReference and Research Bk News\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2011 pg. 242","brand":"Roger Hart","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48448955384063,"sku":"9780801897559","price":70.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_fbe73764-ee63-44c9-9cd6-b3f15ab24a25.jpg?v=1777261333","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-chinese-roots-of-linear-roger-hart-9780801897559","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}