Aryabhata Shikhsa Samman Samaroh 2018

Aryabhata (AD 476-550) was the first of the great mathematician-astronomer of the classical age of India. His writing consists of mathematical theory and astronomical theory which is viewed to be perfect in modern mathematics. Aryabhata's work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition and influenced several neighbouring cultures through translations. India's first satellite Aryabhata and the lunar crater Aryabhatta are named in his honour. The trigonometric functions sine and cosine were introduced by Aryabhata. In fact, modern names "sine" and "cosine" are mistranscriptions of the words jya and kojya as introduced by Aryabhata.

He was the first to discover that the orbits of the planets around the sun are ellipses. He made important contribution to algebra and worked on the approximation for p, and may have come to the conclusion that is irrational. The calculation of 3.1416 is nearly the same with the true value of Pi which is 3.14159.

Verse for calculation of p by him

"Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a circle with a diameter of 20,000 can be approached." Aryabhatta was the first astronomers to make an attempt at measuring the earth's circumference. Aryabhata accurately calculated the earth's circumference which was only 0.2 % smaller than the actual value of 24,902 miles. Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata.