Background
Katahiro Tatebe was born in 1664. He was born the third son of Naotsune Tatebe, a retainer of the Shogunate. Was placed along with his two brothers, Katayuki and Kataaki, under the tutelage of Takakazu Seki.
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Katahiro Tatebe
Edit Profile賢弘 建部
also known as
Hikosaburo
Education
Takebe was the favorite student of the Japanese mathematician Seki Takakazu.
Career
Katahiro Tatebe became a confidant of Shogun Yoshimune, and was commissioned with the job of drawing a map of Japan (1719). His work was a great improvement on the map drawn during the Genroku Era.
His skill in mathematics and astronomy made him an adviser to Shogun Yoshimune in matters pertaining to astronomy. He is credited with being the first to introduce trigonometry to Japan.
After the death of Takakazu Seki and Harumi Shibukawa he came to be considered the greatest authority on astronomical mathematics of his time.
Achievements
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Takebe played critical role in the development of the Enri (円理, "circle principle") - a crude analogon to the western calculus. He also created charts for trigonometric functions. He obtained power series expansion of {\displaystyle (\arcsin(x))^{2}} (\arcsin(x))^{2} in 1722, 15 years earlier than Euler. This was the first power series expansion obtained in Wasan. This result was first conjectured by heavy numeric computation.
He used Richardson extrapolation, about 200 years earlier than Richardson. He also computated 41 digits of {\displaystyle \pi } \pi , based on polygon approximation and Richardson extrapolation.
In the context of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the Mathematical Society of Japan established the Takebe Prize and the Takebe Prizes for the encouragement of young people who show promise as mathematicians.
Connections
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Born
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Died
August 24, 1739 (aged 75) -
Nationality
Japanese -
Ethnicity