aeolianblues reblogged
Things That Weren't Invented/Discovered By White People: Scientific and Mathematical Theories Edition
- Heliocentrism: the astronomical model in which the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun. We typically learn that it was invented by Copernicus and/or Galileo in the 16th century CE; in reality, heliocentrism is mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana, an ancient Indian text c. 600 BCE.
- Atomism: the theory that the world is composed of fundamental indivisible components. While the Greeks did independently come up with this theory in the 5th century BCE, Indian philosophy worked with atomic theory as early as the 9th century BCE.
- Algebra: the study and manipulation of mathematical symbols. The title of "The Father of Algebra" had also previously gone to a Greek named Diophantus. However, a Persian man named Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (last name also sometimes transliterated as Algorithmi, so you see where the names for 'algebra' and 'algorithm' come from) was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline (rather than associated with geometry).