Scientific Secrets of Jainism

Author(s): Nandighoshvijay
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

Page 124

Limitations Of Mathematics In Jain Philosophy And....
93
According to the research scholars of modern age, the development of civilization induced the use of continually increasing big numbers in social transactions. The operation of addition was found to be too cumbersome to tackle the complicated problems involving large numbers arising out of expanding business and commerce. The concept of multiplication emerged out of the process of giving a short form to the operation of addition. It was symbolized as x
In the single set of aforementioned two groups of numbers (positive and negative integers) the product of two numbers of the either group belong to the same group.".
The product of a positive (+ve) number and a negative (-ve) number is always a negative number. In practice, this operation is used to show a quantity of debt. e.g. 5 X (- 4) = - 20. This equation implies that a loan of 4 coins was taken five times. If - 4 is added to - 4 five times, the summation will be - 20. The total loan will amount to 20.
The method of multiplication was invented as a shortcut to the process of addition for a large scale counting of articles, so the method of division was invented and popularized as a shortcut to the process of subtraction as the joint family system gave way to the system of divided family and it became necessary to separate thing of the parental house into divisions. Application of division method to the set of integers proved creative. It induced the following concepts regarding to other types of numbers :
1. The numbers that could be divided by two, came to the called even numbers. e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 etc.
2. The numbers that could not be divided by two, came to be called odd numbers. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 etc.
Same way numbers that were divisible by 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc. and those that were not divisible by them created various classes of numbers.
A new class of natural numbers was discovered. None of its members could be divided by any natural number other than 1 and itself. These numbers are called prime numbers. e.g. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23
etc. 13
The division method created a new set of numbers called fractional numbers e.g. On dividing 1 by 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. one gets 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5,