"Danny Wilde" <fuzakenbo@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d2f8ke$e9s$1@ml.accsnet.ne.jp...
>
> "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
> news:424AC591.6AA022A3@yahoo.co.jp...
> > Vernon North wrote:
> >
> >> In article <1112149667.342633.53480@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> >> superoutland@aol.com says...
> >> > Actually calculus was discovered in japan around the same time as
> >> > lebinitz(whatever his name was).
>
> >> ... if what you say about calculus is true, how about posting a link
> >> to this Japanese discovery of calculus?  I'd like to see it.
>
> There is a book published by Dover called "Japanese mathematics" which
gives
> details of the mathematics developed in Japan by Japanese mathematicians
> before the country was opened to Westerners. I don't know if they invented
> calculus or even the idea of a "function" which is a kind of prerequisite
> for inventing something like calculus. However, I understand that they did
> have some ingenious "home grown" methods
>
> > The stories of how some Japanese guys "would have" been the ones to
create
> > the first airplane or television, and how one guy "invented" a bicycle
> > based on ship design are quite interesting.
>
> Some people in India claimed something similar, about how Indian sages had
> discovered quantum mechanics and relativity, but decided they weren't
worth
> bothering about because they didn't lead to spiritual enlightenment.
>
> I'm sure a lot of countries other than Japan have similar types of
stories.
> Even in Britain there is a guy who "would have" invented the aeroplane
> before the Wright Brothers.
There's a bit here about geometry in Japan around 1800:
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs/jap.shtml