中西文明选读（英文版）第七章ScienceandTechnology.pptVIP

Chapter Seven Science and Technology;【7.1 Science and Technology in China】 【中国的科技】;【7.1 Science and Technology in China】 【中国的科技】; Four Great Inventions of Ancient China is the world’s four great inventions impact, namely, papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, movable type. Compass II. Gunpowder III. Papermaking IV. Movable-type Printing Technique ; Mathematics in Ancient China was once the most advanced in the world. Decimal notation appeared with the beginning of recorded history in China. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,100,1,000 and 10,000 were used for numerical notation in the inscriptions on oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty and the inscriptions on ancient bronze vessels of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Zhoubi Suanjing (The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven), written in the first century, has a record of a theorem proposed by Shang Gao: in a right triangle, if the short leg is 3 and the long leg 4, then the hypotenuse must be 5. That is the Chinese version of the Pythagoras Theorem, also the earliest record of the Pythagoras Theorem in the world.; China is one of the countries to boast the longest history and the most advanced development of astronomy. The ancient astronomy of China originated from the astronomical observation. In the Neolithic Age, the Chinese ancestors attached importance to observing the astronomical phenomena and determining the four seasons for the sake of agricultural production. From the earliest appearance of written characters, China had the successive, complete and accurate recordings of astronomical phenomena. Solar eclipses were recorded in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The earliest record of Halley’s Comet in the world was made in the Spring and Autumn Period (770—476 BC). The earliest and internationally acknowledged record of sunspots was made in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC—AD 25). Hanshu Wuxingzhi (The Treatise on the Five Elements in the Book of Han) described the durations an