The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra
Dr Roger Hart, Professor of Chinese History and Director of the China Institute at Texas Southern University, will deliver a lecture on his book, The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session.
The Chinese Roots of Linear Algebra (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), demonstrates that the essentials of key methods used today in modern linear algebra—augmented matrices, elimination, and determinantal-style calculations—can be found in the arcane arts known as fangcheng 方程, practiced by anonymous adepts beginning in the first century CE in China. Modern linear algebra, a key field of modern mathematics, has previously been asserted to be exclusively Western in origin; my research demonstrates that early linear algebra in fact circulated from China to Europe. (Modern linear algebra is, quite incidentally, one of the foundations of quantum mechanics, through the “matrix mechanics” developed by Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan in the 1920s.) This lecture will focus on extant textual records, reconstruction of the mathematics, the historical context, and evidence of circulation.
Dr Roger Hart is a leading scholar of science and technology in China. His current research focus is contemporary (twenty-first century) China and the Second Quantum Revolution, especially the quantum internet, an area in which China has surpassed the U.S. He is a Professor of Chinese history and Director of the China Institute at Texas Southern University. His previous appointments include the Wilson Center, Seoul National University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Chicago, Institute for Advanced Study, Stanford, University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard. His previous awards include Fulbright U.S. Scholar, American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Andrew W. Mellon. His publications include two research monographs published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He earned his B.S. in mathematics from MIT and M.S. in mathematics from Stanford, and his Ph.D. in Chinese history and history of science from UCLA. He has lived in China for six years; his modern Chinese is near-native and his classical Chinese is excellent. He has spent the last three years studying the newly developed field of quantum information science. His website is www.rhart.org.
This is one of the events in the on-going China Forum Seminar series, hosted by the China Forum, Jesus College. The seminars, given by eminent speakers, cover a broad range of topics and disciplines.
Booking
This is a virtual seminar. Attendance is free. Advance booking is required by emailing: china-forum@jesus.cam.ac.uk. Priority will be given to members of Jesus College and the University of Cambridge.
