Kim Plofker: Publications/Lectures

Publications

• "The problem of the sun's corner altitude and convergence of fixed-point iterations in medieval Indian astronomy", to appear in Ketuprakasa: Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree, ed. C. Burnett, J. Hogendijk, K. Plofker, and M. Yano, Brill
• "Derivation and revelation: the legitimacy of mathematical models in Indian cosmology", to appear in Mathematics and the Divine, ed. L. Bergmans and T. Koetsier, Elsevier
• "Indian astronomy and astrology", to appear in The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 1
• "Mathematics, South Asian: the discipline of mathematics as it developed in the Indian subcontinent", to appear in Encyclopedia Britannica
• "Leonard Euler, 'On the Solar Astronomical Year of the Indians'", in Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Euler Society, ed. C. Edward Sandifer, Euler Society (electronic publication), 2003
• "Spherical trigonometry and the astronomy of the medieval Kerala school", in History of Oriental Astronomy, Proceedings of the IAU Joint Discussion-17, ed. S. M. Razaullah Ansari, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003, pp. 83--93
• "Use and transmission of iterative approximations in India and the Islamic world", in From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas, ed. Yvonne Dold-Samplonius et al., Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2002, pp. 167--186
• "The 'error' in the Indian 'Taylor series approximation' to the sine", Historia Mathematica 28 (2001), 283--295
• (with S. Ikeyama) "The Tithicintamani of Ganesa", SCIAMVS 2 (2001), 251--289
• "The astrolabe and spherical trigonometry in medieval India", Journal for the History of Astronomy xxxi (2000), 38--54
• "An example of the secant method of iterative approximation in a fifteenth-century Sanskrit text", Historia Mathematica 23 (1996), 246--256
• "How to appreciate Indian techniques for deriving mathematical formulas?'' in L'Europe mathématique, ed. Catherine Goldstein and James Ritter, Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 1996, pp. 53--65
• Review of Pushpa Kumari Jain, The Suryaprakasa of Suryadasa, Vol. 1, to appear in Isis
• Review of J. L. Berggren and A. Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, to appear in Historia Mathematica
• Review of Anne Tihon et al., Une version byzantine du Traité sur l'astrolabe du Pseudo-Messahalla, Early Science and Medicine VII, 4 (2002), 404--405
• Review of Gyan Prakash, Another Reason: Science and the Imagination of Modern India, Journal of Asian Studies 59, 3 (2000), 781--782
• Review of Takao Hayashi, The Bakhshali Manuscript, Indo-Iranian Journal 41 (1998), 162--164
• Review of Virendra Nath Sharma, Sawai Jai Singh and his Astronomy, Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences 47, 139 bis (1997)
• Review of Subhash Kak, The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda, Centaurus 38 (1996), 362--364

Lectures

• "The Astrolabe in India", Annual Meeting, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Halifax NS, 1 June 2003
• "The Mathematics Textbook and the Disappointed Daughter: History of a Mathematical Urban Legend" (with E. Allyn Smith), Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), Baltimore MD, 17 January 2003
• "Mathematics in India", MAA Short Course on Mathematics in the Ancient World, Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), Baltimore MD, 13 January 2003
• "A Medieval Islamic Analysis of Indian Mathematics", International Institute for Asian Studies Workshop--Asian Contributions to the Formation of Modern Science, Leiden, 20 September 2002
• "Euler and Sanskrit astronomy in eighteenth-century Europe", Euler2k+2 Conference, Rumford ME, 5 August 2002
• "Acceleration of convergence of fixed-point iterations in medieval Sanskrit mathematics", Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), San Diego CA, 7 January 2002
• "Calculus in Sanskrit? Indian mathematics and infinitesimal analysis", AMS Eastern Section Meeting, Williamstown MA, October 2001
• "Islamic reactions to Indian mathematics", Symposium on the History of Islamic Mathematics, University of Oklahoma (invited lecture), 30 March 2001
• "Derivation and revelation: the legitimacy of mathematical models in Indian cosmology", Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (invited lecture), 28 November 2000
• "Use and transmission of iterative approximations in India and the Islamic world", Bellagio Conference on Transmission of Mathematical Ideas, Bellagio, Italy, May 2000
• "Four centuries of spherical trigonometry in Sanskrit", Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), Washington D.C., 21 January 2000
• "'Guessing with intelligence:' experiments with iterative approximations and their convergence in medieval Indian astronomy", Vassar College (invited lecture), Poughkeepsie, NY, 26 October 1999 (an earlier version given at Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, 11 November 1998)
• "Elegant fractions in Indian astronomy", AMS Eastern Section Meeting, Providence, RI, 3 October 1999
• "A text-based approach to electronic cataloguing of non-Western manuscripts", ACH-ALLC International Humanities Computing Conference, Charlottesville, VA, 11 June 1999
• "'Command over the native mind:' the nineteenth-century synthesis of Indian and European astronomy", Massachusetts Institute of Technology (invited lecture), 11 December 1998
• "Ganita and Jyotisha: Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy", MAA Institute for the History of Mathematics and its Use in Teaching, Washington, D.C., 28 July 1998
• "Women and mathematical education in classical India", Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), Baltimore, 9 January 1998
• "The Kerala school in 14th-century India: medieval mathematics and its modern interpretation", New York Academy of Sciences---History and Philosophy of Science Section (invited lecture), New York, 4 December 1997
• "Spherical trigonometry in the astronomy of the medieval Kerala school", Joint Discussion on History of Oriental Astronomy, 23rd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, Kyoto, 25 August 1997
• "The `error' in the Indian `Taylor series approximation' to the sine", Joint Mathematics Meetings (AMS/MAA), San Diego, 11 January 1997
• (with D. Otero) "Gregory of St. Vincent, Antonio de Sarasa and the area under the hyperbola", Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, 10 January 1997
• "Errors and approximations in medieval Indian and Islamic spherical trigonometry", Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, (Geschichte der Mathematik), Oberwolfach, Germany, 5 November 1996
• "Some medieval Indian approximation formulas", Joint Mathematics Meetings, Orlando, FL, 13 January 1996
• "Problems and puzzles in history of mathematics research", Joint Mathematics Meetings, Orlando, FL, 11 January 1996
• "Mathematical approximation in Indian astronomy", University Seminar on the Veda and its Interpretation, Columbia University (invited lecture), New York, 11 May 1995
• "Indian techniques for deriving mathematical formulas", Workshop on Mathematical Europe: Myths and Historical Realities, European Congress of Mathematics, Paris, 3 April 1992
• "Brahmagupta's formulas relating to the phases of the moon", Symposium on Indian and Other Asiatic Astronomies, Hyderabad/Jaipur (India), 13 December 1991

This page was last updated 12 September 2003.