Mathematician:Li Ye

Mathematician

Chinese mathematician and writer who published and improved the tian yuan shu method for solving polynomial equations of one variable.

Nationality

Chinese

History

• Born: 1192 in Daxing (now Beijing), China
• Died: 1279 near Feng Lung mountain in Yuan, Hebei, China

Writings

• 1248: Ceyuan haijing (測圓海鏡) ("Sea mirror of circle measurements")
• 1259: Yigu yanduan (益古演段) ("New steps in computation")

Also known as

In Chinese: 李冶

Also transliterated Li Yeh.

His courtesy name was Li Jingzhai (Chinese: 李敬斋).

Born Li Zhi (Li Chih), he changed his name to Li Ye so as to remove confusion with the third Tang emperor who was also named Li Zhi.

He did this by removing one stroke from the characters 李治.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Li Ye": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Li Chih
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Li Ye, Li Zhi (Li Chih) (1192-1279)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Li Chih
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Li Ye, Li Zhi (Li Chih) (1192-1279)