Tag Archives: square

Bhāskara’s dual square indeterminate equations

PDF for convenient reading Figure 1. Sum and difference of squares amounting to near squares. In course of our exploration of the bhūjā-koṭi-karṇa-nyāya in our early youth we had observed that there are examples of “near misses”: . Hence, we … Continue reading

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Two squares that sum to a cube

Introduction This note records an exploration that began in our youth with the simple arithmetic question: Sum of the squares of which pair integers yields a perfect cube? Some obvious cases immediately come to mind: . In both these cases … Continue reading

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Difference of consecutive cubes, conics and a Japanese temple tablet

Introduction In our part of the world, someone with even a nominal knowledge of mathematics might be aware of the taxicab number made famous by the conversation of Ramanujan and Hardy: the smallest number that can be expressed as the … Continue reading

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Discovering bronze in the characteristic ellipse of right triangles

The arithmetic mean square of a right triangle An entire family of right triangles that includes all the different forms of right triangles defined in terms of the proportion of their legs can be obtained by setting their altitude to … Continue reading

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An apparition of Mordell

Consider the equation: where is a positive integer 1, 2, 3… For a given , will the above equation have integer solutions and, if yes, what are they and how many? We have heard of accounts of people receiving solutions … Continue reading

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Triangles, Hexes and Cubes

One philosophical question which we have often ponder about is: Are numbers “real”? One way to approach this question is via figurate numbers, where numbers directly manifest as very tangible geometry. This idea has deep roots in our tradition: as … Continue reading

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The two squares theorem

I do not know who might have discovered this simple relationship first. I stumbled upon it while drawing figures in the notebook during a seminar. Take any two squares such that they are joined at one side and the two … Continue reading

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Euler’s squares

On account of our fascination with the geometry of origami (albeit not well-endowed in mathematical capacity) we discovered for ourselves shortly after our father had taught us trigonometry that, We had earlier shown the origami proof for that. But it … Continue reading

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A strange Soviet construction

in our college days we used to visit the lāl-pustak-bhaṇḍār in our city where Soviet books on science and mathematics were sold at a low price (alongside Marxian literature). They were a great resource that enormously contributed to our intellectual … Continue reading

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Ramanujan’s second construction for the approximate squaring of a circle

To experience the greatness of great men one has to relive or redo some acts of theirs to the best of ones ability. In ones youth such enactments might inspire one to make a bid for greatness. Whether this happens … Continue reading

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Between the rasArNava and the chitrabandha-s

In the glorious summer we sought, through the secret practice, the enlightenment, which the elixir of viveka confers upon the lucky. We reclined in the holy land of bhArata, now sullied by the faded vigor of our peoples and the … Continue reading

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