Lost Discoveries: the Ancient Roots of Modern Science--From The
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V COVER e Ancient .Roots oi JVLoaern ocience from the Babvl s to the May DICK TERES U.S. $27.00 Can. $41.00 Lost Discoveries, DickTeresi s innovative history of science, explores the unheralded scientific breakthroughs from peoples of the ancient world— Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Africans, New World and Oceanic tribes, among others—and the non-European medieval world. They left an enormous heritage in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology. The mathematical foundation of Western science is a gift from the Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Babylonians, and Maya. The ancient Egyptians developed the concept of the lowest common denominator, and they developed a fraction table that modern scholars estimate required 28,000 calculations to compile. The Babylonians developed the first written math and used a place-value number system. Our numerals, 0 through 9, were invented in ancient India; the Indians also boasted geometry, trigonometry, and a kind of calculus. Planetary astronomy as well may have begun with the ancient Indians, who correctly identified the relative distances of the known planets from the sun, and knew the moon was nearer to the earth than the sun was. The Chinese observed, reported, dated, recorded, and inter preted eclipses between 1400 and 1200 B.C. Most of the names of our stars and constellations are Arabic. Arabs built the first observatories. Five thousand years ago, the Sumerians said the earth was circular. In the sixth century, a Hindu astronomer taught that the daily rotation of the earth on its axis provided the rising and setting of the sun. Chinese and Arab scholars were the first to use fossils scientifically to trace earth's history. Chinese alchemists realized that most physical sub stances were merely combinations of other substances, which could be mixed in different proportions. Islamic scholars are legendary for translating scientific texts of many languages into Arabic, a tradition that began (continued on back flap) (continuedfrom front flap) with alchemical books. In the eleventh century, Avi- cenna of Persia divined that outward qualities of metals were of little value in classification, and he stressed internal structure, a notion anticipating Mendeleyev's periodic chart of elements. Iron suspension bridges came from Kashmir, printing from India; papermaking was from China, Tibet, India, and Baghdad; movable type was invented by Pi Sheng in about 1041; the Quechuan Indians of Peru were the first to vulcanize rubber; Andean farmers were the first to freeze-dry potatoes. European explorers depended heavily on Indian and Filipino shipbuilders, and collected maps and sea charts from Javanese and Arab merchants. The first comprehensive, authoritative, popularly written, multicultural history of science, Lost Discoveries fills a crucial gap in the history of science. DICK TE R E S I is the author or coauthor of several books about science and technology, including The God Particle. He is cofounder of Omni magazine and has written for Discover, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly, and is a frequent reviewer and essayist for The New York Times Book Review. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. Jacket design by'Marc Cohen Author photograph © Michael Zide Printed in the U.S.A. Copyright © 2002 Simon & Schuster "If you think, as I did, that science flowered in ancient Greece—the way Athena sprang fully formed from the brow of Zeus—then read Dick Teresi's Lost Discov eries and revel in the global expression of early genius, from Sumerian mathematics and ancient Indian particle physics to the sky maps of the Skidi Pawnee and the rubber 'factories' of the Aztecs." —Dava Sobel, author of Galileo's Daughter una Longitude "Wow, Teresi's Lost Discoveries is a romp through the history of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology. Teresi must have pored through tons of ancient manuscripts and scholarly compendia to unearth a rich mine of historical achievements of largely non-Western civilizations that preceded and enabled the Golden Age of Greece. For science buffs who are curious about 'How do we know?' and 'How did we learn?' this is a spectacular canvas, and it illuminates the power of cultural diversity. Yes, there were peaks in the progress of science, but today science is the only universal culture, the same in the West, East, North, and South. Teresi's important book helps to explain why." —Leon Lederman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and coauthor of The God Particle >BN D-baM- 03710- Also by Dick Teresi Popular Mechanics Book of Bikes and Bicycling Omni's Continuum: Dramatic Phenomena from the New Frontiers of Science Laser: Light of a Million Uses (with Jeff Hecht) The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? (with Leon Lederman) LOST DISCOVERIES The Ancient Roots of Modern Science—from the Babylonians to tne Maya DICKTERESI SIMON & SCHUSTER New York London Toronto Sydney Singapore i. SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2002 by Dick Teresi All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All drawings and charts in Chapter 2 courtesy of George Gheverghese Joseph. Copyright © 1991 by George Gheverghese Joseph. For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales: 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected] Designed by Rhea Braunstein Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Teresi, Dick. Lost discoveries : the ancient roots of modern science—from the Babylonians to the Maya / Dick Teresi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Science, Ancient. 2. Science—History. I. Title. Q124.95 .T47 2002 509.3—dc21 2002075457 ISBN 0-684-83718-8 Jjoard of Advisers Anthony Aveni Alfred W.Crosby Harold Goldwhite George Gheverghese Joseph Robert Kaplan David Park George Saliba Sheila Seaman Barbara C. Sproul The above scientists, mathematicians, and scholars reviewed the manu- script for scientific, mathematical, and historical accuracy. Some were chosen for a non-Western, others for a Western bias. While I deferred to these advisers on factual matters, they did not always agree with my interpretation of those facts. My point of view was greatly affected by the views expressed by my advisers, but ultimately it is my own. Where practical, I have stated differing views by the board in the endnotes. Anthony Aveni is the Russell B. Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology at Colgate University. He is the author of Conversing with the Planets: How Science and Myth Invented the Cosmos and other works of archaeoastronomy. Alfred W. Crosby is professor emeritus of history at the University of Texas. He is the author of Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, among other works. Harold Goldwhite is professor of chemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, and is the coauthor, with Cathy Cobb, of Creations of Fire: Chemistry's Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Age. Board of Advisers George Gheverghese Joseph is professor of mathematics at the University of Manchester (UK) and the author of The Crest of the Peacock: Non- European Roots of Mathematics. Robert Kaplan has taught mathematics at a number of institutions, most recently Harvard University. He is the author of The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero. David Park is emeritus professor of physics at Williams College. He is the author of The Fire Within the Eye:A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light. George Saliba is professor of Arabic and Islamic science at the depart- ment of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures, Columbia Uni- versity. He is the author of A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, among other works. Sheila J. Seaman is associate professor of geology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Barbara C. Sproul is director of the program in religion, Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the author of Primal Myths: Cre- ation Myths Around the World and was one of the founders of the Ameri- can section of Amnesty International, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. VI Contents 1 A HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Rediscovered 1 2 MATHEMATICS: Tke Language of Science 21 3 ASTRONOMY Slcy Watckers and More 89 4 COSMOLOGY TW Old-Time Religion 157 5 PHYSICS: Particles, Voids, and Fields 193 6 GEOLOGY Stones of Eartk Itself 231 7 CHEMISTRY Alckemy and Beyond 279 8 TECHNOLOGY Mackines as a Measure of Man 325 Notes 369 Selected Bibliograf>ky 421 Acknowledgments 431 Index 433 VU LOST DISCOVERIES A HISTORY OF SCIENCE Rediscovered HE most important scientific achievement in Western history is commonly ascribed to Nicolaus Copernicus, who on his death- Tbed published Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Science historian Thomas Kuhn called the Polish-born astronomer's accomplishment the "Copernican Revolution." It represented a final break with the Middle Ages, a movement from religion to science, from dogma to enlightened secularism. What had Copernicus done to be- come the most important scientist of all time? In school we learned that in the sixteenth century, Copernicus re- formed the solar system, placing the sun, rather than the earth, at its cen- ter, correcting the work of the second-century Greek astronomer Ptolemy. By constructing his heliocentric system, Copernicus put up a fire wall between the West and East, between a scientific culture and those of magic and superstition. Copernicus did more than switch the center of the solar system from the earth to the sun. The switch itself is important, but mathemat- ically trivial.