中英雙語(yǔ)話(huà)中國(guó)歷史名人:劉徽

Liu Hui was a Chinese mathematician who lived inthe 200s in the Wei Kingdom.

劉徽，數(shù)學(xué)家，公元200年魏晉年間人。

In 263 he published a book with solutions tomathematical problems presented in the famousChinese book of mathematics known as JiuzhangSuanshu or The Nine Chapters on the MathematicalArt.

公元263年，他出版了一本解決數(shù)學(xué)難題的專(zhuān)著——注釋《九章算術(shù)》。

In these commentaries he presented(among other things ):

在這此注釋里，劉徽主要提出了：

An estimate of π in the comments to chapter 1. He estimated pi to 3. 141014 with a 192 sidedpolygon and later calculated pi as 3. 14159 by using a 3 079 sided polygon.

圓周率(第一章)劉徽算到192邊形的面積，得到π=3.141014，又算到3 079邊形的面積，得到π=3.14159。

He suggested that 3. 14 was a good approximation.

他認(rèn)為3. 14是個(gè)比較好的近似值。

His estimation is made with a method similar to Archimedes.

劉徽的計(jì)算方法與阿基米德的計(jì)算方法相似。

The Nine Chapters used the value 3 as π, but Zhang Heng had previously estimated it to thesquare root of 10;

《九章算術(shù)》里的π值為3，但是張衡原來(lái)已經(jīng)算出π是10的平方根;

Gaussian elimination;

高斯消元;

Cavalieri's principle to find the volume of a cylinder.

“牟合方蓋”說(shuō)。

He also presented, in a separate appendix called Haidao suanjing or The Sea IslandMathematical Manual, several problems related to surveying.

在《海島算經(jīng)》中，劉徽還提出了測(cè)高測(cè)遠(yuǎn)方法以及多次測(cè)望的方法。

Liu was one of the first mathematicians known to leave roots unevaluated, giving more exactresults instead of approximations.

劉徽是最先不求解，不給近似值而給出精確值的數(shù)學(xué)家之一。