Sridhara

Sridhara (c. 870, India – c. 930 India) was an Indian mathematician. He was born in Hooghly district. His father's name was Baladevacharya and mother's name was Acchoka.

Works

• He was known for two treatises: Trisatika (sometimes called the Patiganitasara) and the Patiganita. His major work Patiganitasara was named Trisatika because it was witten in three hundred slokas. The book discusses counting of numbers,measures,natural number,multiplication,division,zero,squares,cubes,fraction,rule of three,interest-calculation,joint business or partnership and mensuration.
• Of all the Hindu Acharyas the exposition of Sridharacharya on zero is the most explicit. 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 mutiplying the fraction by the reciprocal of the divisor.
• He wrote on practical applications of algebra separated algebra from arithmetic
• He was one of the first to give a formula for solving quadratic equations.

References

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Sridhara", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Sridhara.html .