Seki Kowa - The Arithmetical Sage
The life of Japanese mathematician Seki Kowa is a mysterious one. Very little is known about this great man with the exception of a few key points. It is known that he was born around the year 1640 into a samurai family, most likely in the town of Fujioka. At a young age he was adopted into a noble family and became known as either Seki Kowa or Seki Takakaza. As a child, Seki educated himself in mathematics and many considered him an infant prodigy on the subject. Before his death on October 24, 1708, Seki is credited for having made many important discoveries and advances in algebra and calculus and for turning the study of mathematics in Asia from an artform into a science.
Seki is known for being the first person to study determinants. The determinant of a matrix is a combination of the entries of the matrix with the property that the determinant is 0 if and only if the matrix is not invertible(AB=BA≠0). Seki studied this in the 1683, which was ten years prior to the discovery by Gottfried Leibniz. Seki’s discoveries are credited with being more general then those of Leibniz.
The general equation of a determinant is:
a1b2c3 - a1b3c2 + a2b3c1 - a2b1c3 + a3b1c2 - a3b2c1 = 0
Seki discovered many other things prior to similar discoveries made by European scientists. Among these include the Newton-Raphson method for solving equations, Bernoulli numbers and being able to solve the cubic equation 30 + 14x - 5x2 - x3 = 0. It is thought that Seki may have made many other discoveries in the field of calculus that he passed on to his pupils, but the secrecy surrounding Japanese schools makes this hard to determine Seki worked as an examiner of accounts for the Lord of Koshu and it was with this close capacity to the people in charge that he was able to create policies making math more accessible to the common person. This greatly increased the status of mathematics and helped fulfill Seki’s goal of turning mathematics into a science. The many pupils that Seki taught furthered the growth of Japanese mathematics.
Weisstein, E.W. Determinate. Retrieved February 24, 2008, from MathWorld Web site: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Determinant.html
O'Connor, J.J. (1997, February). Takakazu Seki Kowa. Retrieved February 24, 2008, from Takakazu Seki Kowa Web site: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Seki.html
Interesting choice of mathematician. All I can think of is for you to add more creative adjectives to make the article more interesting to read…
Good biography. It would help if you explained what a determinant is. Also putting your bibliography in a link wouldn't hurt either.
Definitely an interesting choice and some good facts. I thought you might also be interested in knowing that on his tombstone was carved the phrase "The Arthimetical Sage" - which is a fitting choice considering his contributions. However there are a couple of minor typos including a comma splice and no capital at the beginning of your second sentence; nothing big just a little distracting for a reader. And yeah what exactly is a determinant?
This idea of the independent discovery of mathematical theories makes me wonder whether theories exist out there in the universe and we discover them, or if they are a construct of human culture.
There must be some research out there on this topic…
PL