Ajima Naonobu

Ajima Naonobu (安島 直円, 1732 – May 20, 1798), also known as Ajima Manzō Chokuyen, was a Japanese mathematician of the Edo period.[1]

Work

Ajima is credited with introducing calculus into Japanese mathematics. This significance of this innovation is diminished by a likelihood that he had access to European writings on the subject.[2] Ajima also posed the question of inscribing three mutually tangent circles in a triangle;[3] these circles are now known as Malfatti circles after the later work of Gian Francesco Malfatti, but two triangle centers derived from them, the Ajima–Malfatti points, are named after Ajima.[4][5]

Ajima was an astronomer at the Shogun's Observatory (Bakufu Temmongaki).[6]

Legacy

In 1976, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) honored Ajima by identifying a crater on the moon with his name. Naonobu is a small lunar impact crater located on the eastern Mare Fecunditatis, to the northwest of the prominent crater Langrenus.[7]

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Ajima Naonobu, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 20+ works in 30+ publications in two languages and 40+ library holdings.[8]

See also

Notes

References

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