Question

What are the contribution of shridara charya in mathematics?

Answer 1

Sridhara is now believed to have lived in the ninth and tenth centuries. However, there has been much dispute over his date and in different works the dates of the life of Sridhara have been placed from the seventh century to the eleventh century. The best present estimate is that he wrote around 900 AD, a date which is deduced from seeing which other pieces of mathematics he was familiar with and also seeing which later mathematicians were familiar with his work. We do know that Sridhara was a Hindu but little else is known. Two theories exist concerning his birthplace which are far apart. Some historians give Bengal as the place of his birth while other historians believe that Sridhara was born in southern India.

his achievements include-

He gave an exposition on zero. He has written, "If 0(zero) is added to any number,the sum is the same number; If 0(zero) is subtracted from any number,the number remains unchanged; If 0(zero) is multiplied by any number,the product is 0(zero)". He has said nothing about division of any number by 0(zero).

In the case of dividing a fraction he has found out the method of multiplying the fraction by the reciprocal of the divisor.

He wrote on practical applications of algebra

He separated algebra from arithmetic

He was one of the first to give a formula for solving quadratic equations.