Cube (algebra) - History

History

Determination of the Cube of large numbers was very common in many ancient civilizations. Aryabhata, the ancient Indian mathematician in his famous work Aryabhatiya explains about the mathematical meaning of cube (Aryabhatiya, 2-3), as "the continuous product of three equals as also the (rectangular) solid having 12 equal edges are called cube". Similar definitions can be seen in ancient texts such as Brahmasphuta Siddhanta (XVIII. 42), Ganitha sara sangraha (II. 43) and Siddhanta sekhara (XIII. 4). It is interesting that in modern mathematics too, the term "Cube" stands for two mathematical meanings just like in Sanskrit, where the word Ghhana means a factor of power with the number, multiplied by itself three times and also a cubical structure. In 2010 Alberto Zanoni found a new algorithm to compute the cube of a long integer in a certain range, faster than squaring-and-multiplying.

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