Al-Battani pioneer trigonometry

Al-Battani

Born:

about 858, Harran near Urfa, Mesopotamia (now Turkey)

Died: 929 CE Qasr al-JISS (near Samarra), Damascus

Era:

The golden age of Islam

region:

Caliphate

Of primary importance:

Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology

Notable ideas

Trigonometry

Masterpiece:

Kitab az-Zij

Al-Battani or Muhammad Ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan Abu Abdullah, known as the father of trigonometry. He is a character of the Arabs and the governor of Syria. He is the greatest Muslim astronomers and ahlimatematika renowned. Al-Battani childbirth trigonometry to a higher level and the first to establish a table of cotangent. One famous achievement is about the determination of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds.

Al Battani (Arabic أبو عبد الله محمد بن جابر بن سنان الحراني الصابي البتاني ; Full name: Abū Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Sinan al-Jabir al-Harrani Raqqī US-Ṣabi' al-Battani), while in Latin known as Albategnius, Albategni or Albatenius.

Al-Battani was born around 858 in Harran near Urfa, in Upper Mesopotamia, which is now in Turkey. His father was a famous scientific instrument maker. Some Western historians claim that he came from the poor, such as the Arab slave, yet traditional Arab biographer does not mention this. He lived and worked in Ar-Raqqah, a city in north central Syria and in Damascus, which is also the point of death.

Astronomy

One of the achievements of Al-Battani most famous in astronomy is a refinement of the existing values ​​for the length of the year. Ptolemy calculates the length of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes and 12 seconds. Al-Battani recalculate the values ​​in the sun for a long year as 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. Researchers have considered differences in the phenomenon because Al-Battaniberada in a geographic location that is closer to the southern latitudes, which may be more favorable for such observations.

He was able to fix some of the results of Ptolemy and compose new tables of the sun and moon. Al-Battani rediscover that the direction of the Sun changed.

He also outlines a number of relationships to a certain level trigonometry, the use of sinus in the calculation, and some of tangents. He explained to a certain extent the work of an Indian astronomer, Aryabhata (476-550 AD) and astronomer YunaniPythagoras (570 BC -. C 495 BC). He also recalculate the values ​​for the precession of the equinoxes (54.5 "per year, or 1 ° in 66 years) and the obliquity of the ecliptic (23 ° 35 '), which is a translation of Hipparchus. He uses a uniform rate of precession in his tables.

Al-Battani works that are considered instrumental in the development of science and astronomy to a certain degree.

Mathematics

In mathematics, al-Battani produced a number of trigonometric equations:

and use of the idea of ​​al-Marwazi about tangent in developing equations to calculate the tangent, cotangent and tangent calculation tabulated. He also found the opposite function of secant and cosecant, and produced the first table cosecants, which he referred to as "shadow tables" (referring to the shadow of the gnomon), for every degree of 1 ° to 90 °.

Creation

The main work of the famous Al-Battani is Kitab az-Zij, or book of astronomical tables, also known as az-Zij as-Sabi '. It is largely based on the theory of Ptolemy, and sources other Greek-Syrians, while showing little influence India or Persia.

This book is printed diterjemahan into Latin and Spanish, including a Latin translation as De Motu Stellarum by Plato of Tivoli in 1116, which then reprinted with annotations by Regiomontanus. A reprint appeared in Bologna in 1645. The original MS. preserved in the Vatican; and libraries have Escorial in MS. a treatise of some value to him in astronomical chronology.

End of life

Al-Battani died in the year 929 in the Qasr al-JISS (near Samarra), Damascus.

Source: Wikipedia