Qin Jiushao Research Paper

When you think about Mathematicians, you think about rich and incalculably intelligent old people. What comes into my head is my Middle School’s mathematician who had a sharp nose, was extremely strict and surprisingly, not quite as old as we may rudely often think. The real definition of a Mathematician is a person with an extensive knowledge of mathematics who uses this knowledge in their work, normally to solve mathematical problems. One famous Mathematician, named Qin Jiushao along with many other mathematicians revolutionized the math world and helped create simpler methods with their mathematical knowledge.

Qin Jiushao was born on 1202 in Anyue of Sichan. The Chinese mathematician was one of the four greatest mathematicians of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, along with Li Ye, Yang Hui and Zhu Shijie. When he was young, he studied under an official of the imperial academic institute and was taught mathematics from a hermit. Unfortunately, we do not know his instructors name. In 1247, he wrote the great work Mathematical Treatise in Nine parts, which was in 18 volumes of 81 problems in 9 categories. That book included his most important mathematical achievements. Named ‘’The Dayan General Mathematical Art” which was the solution of systems of linear congruence equations’’. It also had “The Extraction of Positive and Negative Roots” which was the solution of equations of higher degree. Because of these achievements, the Song-Dynasty mathematical treatise gained a well-known status in the mathematical history of the Middle Ages.

Even though we know some of the math methods he created, Qin Jiushao is one of the few mathematicians in China of whom we have fairly detailed biographical data, since he had some positions in government ...

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...ht he would turn out to be. Interestingly, despite Qin's character, he does not claim this brilliant method as his own. He said that he learned certain ideas from the calendar experts when he was studying at the Board of Astronomy in Hangzhou. He stated, however, that these calendar experts used the rule without understanding it. It would appear though that Qin must have taken these ideas much further and actually solved them.

Not every mathematician is old and strict. Not every mathematician had a sharp long nose. What we know is that these mathematician have such great urge to learn and that is why we call them genius. Qin ironically had the patience to create this methods. He was one of the greatest mathematician of all time and also carried a very interesting background. I guess at the end, we just all have different thoughts of what a mathematician really is.