Week8 Homework: Summary on "A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History by Michael H.Hart", "The Renaissance by Will Durant" and "Zu Chongzhi and the Chinese Calendar Reform of 462 AD by Yang Shaoyun"

Summary on "A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History by Michael H.Hart" and ``The Renaissance by Will Durant"

These two article introduce two of the most influential persons in history, Ts'ai Lun and Leonardo da vinci. Ts'ai Lun is the man who invented paper. Ts'ai Lun is among the ten most influential people who ever lived by the author, since the author thinks the invent of paper makes the progress of civilization quicker. However, unlike the technique for the mass production of books was invented by Johann Gutenberg in the West, China stayed with block printing and the culture progressed relatively slowly. This view is one of explanations for why did China eventually fall behind the West. Another person is Leonardo da Vinci, the most fascinating figure of the Renaissance. He had so many titles, such as an Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. He greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

Summary on "Zu Chongzhi and the Chinese Calendar Reform of 462 AD by Yang Shaoyun"

Zu Chongzhi is one of the most famous ancient Chinese mathematicians in both China and the Western world, but his contributions in the field of astronomy are largely ignored outside Asia. This article introduces the life and work of Zu because the author thinks the life background will influence the achievements of a person. Zu was born in Jiankang. His family had historically been involved in astronomy research, and from childhood Zu was exposed to both astronomy and mathematics. When he was only a youth his talent earned him much repute. Zu Chongzhi won himself credit for three approximations of p: 22/7, 355/113, and the interval 3.1415926 < p < 3.1415927; the third result remained the best in the world until improved by the Arab mathematician al-Kashi.

Comparison

These three articles are all about the most influential people for the progress of the civilization in history. The research and investigation on them will give us a sense for how human's civilization progress in history.

References}
1.Michael H.Hart, ``A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History".
2.Will Durant, ``The Renaissance".
3.Yang Shaoyun, ``Chinese Calendar Reform of 462 AD".