Aryabhatiya
A young astronomer computes π and says the Earth spins
The 23-year-old Indian astronomer Aryabhata composed a treatise on mathematics and astronomy. It uses place-value notation, gives π ≈ 3.1416 and states that the Earth rotates on its axis.
Wikipedia (English) · 5th century
Did you know
Twenty-three years after the Western Roman Empire fell, India's Aryabhata wrote that the sky only appears to move — it is the Earth that rotates.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire — 23 years earlier
- c. 496 Baptism of Clovis — 3 years earlier
Middle East
- c. 500 Completion of the Babylonian Talmud — 1 year later
Americas
- c. 500 Rise of Tiwanaku — 1 year later
Alive at the time
- Justinian I (aged 17)
- Clovis I (aged 33)
- Aryabhata (aged 23)