A new interpretation of Jingtian shu(Method for measuring rectangular fields)in mathematical books on wooden and bamboo slips of the Qin and Han dynasties
The Jingtian shu(Method for measuring rectangular fields)is a convenient method found in wooden and bamboo mathematical books of Qin and Han dynasties for finding the area of a rectangular field when one or both of the width and the length are greater than 240 bu.This method is not found in traditional texts but in four excavated wooden and bamboo mathemat-ical books of the Qin and Han dynasties.Some scholars have talked about it,and the conclusions they made are reasonable to a certain extent.However,due to the obscurity of some languages in the method,these conclusions are still open to discussion.This paper analyzed several representative viewpoints of the academic circle,pointed out the elements that are reasonable and those that are still open to discussion in those points of view,and proposed a new way of interpreting this method based on the analysis of the textual meaning of the method.
mathematical book on wooden and bamboo slips of the Qin and Han dynastiesJingtian shu(Method for measuring rectangular fields)convenient method
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