"‘These operations are all founded on a very distinct conception of what happens in the case of an eclipse, and on the knowledge of this theorem, that, in a right-angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides. It is curious to find the theorem of PYTHAGORAS in India, where, for aught we know, it may have been discovered, and from whence that philosopher may have derived some of the solid, as well as the visionary speculations, with which he delighted to instruct or amuse his disciples.’"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Fellows of the Royal SocietyAcademics from the United KingdomGeologists from ScotlandPhysicists from ScotlandMathematicians from Scotland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Playfair, John. ‘Remarks on the astronomy of the Brahmins’. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. II. (1790): pp.135-192. quoted from Bhaskar Kamble, The Imperishable Seed: How Hindu Mathematics Changed the World and why this History was Erased, Garuda Prakashan Private Limited, 2022 ISBN 9798885750189
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Playfair
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Playfair
John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is most famous for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Playfair's textbook Element
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Playfair →
Related Quotes
"“Aldebaran was therefore 40’ before the point of the vernal equinox, according to the Indian astronomy, in the year 3…"
"The observations on which the astronomy of India is founded, were made more than three thousand years before the Chri…"
"That observations made in India, when all Europe was barbarous or uninhabited, and investigations into the most subtl…"
"Now, it is worth remarking, that this property of the table of sines, which has been so long known in the East, was n…"
"‘We must, therefore, enquire, whether this epoch is real or fictitious, that is, whether it has been determined by ac…"
"It was well observed by Playfair, some 90 years ago, that "a theory that explains everything explains nothing.""
"Playfair's judicious use of astronomy was countered by John Bentley with a scriptural argument which will not convinc…"
"One of the earliest estimates of the date of the Vedas was at once among the most scientific. In 1790, the Scottish m…"
"Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time. The chasm b…"
"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."