Sangaku: Japanese "Sacred Geometry"

In Edo-period Japan, shinto shrines were often decorated with small wooden plaques called sangaku which contained challenging geometric puzzles. Whether the purpose was for the gods, or for other congregants is unclear but the math they used was based on Japanese techniques called wasan.
At the time, Japan was closed-off from the rest of the world under an isolationist foreign policy called "Sakoku." While Newton and Leibniz were creating calculus in Europe, Japanese mathematicians were developing their own parallel mathematics which made many of the same discoveries as their Western counterparts.

[@stevenzheng5459]

I think this video is a good intro to what Sangaku is. Would be awesome if you could discuss Wa-san (Japanese mathematics) and how it evolved out of Zhong-suan (Chinese mathematics) during the Edo period.
Many of the research areas and formulas known by the Japanese began with the direct transmission of Chinese mathematics texts from Korea into Japan. As mathematics declined in China during the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD), it gained popularity in Japan due to the peacetime economy and "demilitarization" of the Samurai class. In fact, many Japanese mathematicians of the Edo period were Samurai.

[@aracus]

It reminds me, in higb school, I took advanced mathematics courses, i believe it was in tenth grade, and she would give us every once in a while really advanced problems that she would frame as a puzzle. We had to figure out a way to solve it. She would always end these classes with discussions of how we would solve these, and use the opportunity to tease college calculus. I actually went and learned derivatives on my own, as a result, and to this day i still love learning new maths tricks. Just have to reframe these as any other puzzles and it can become so much fun, unfortunately it would seem i was one of the lucky few to have such a passionnate teacher

[@ferretsensei]

That is a great story. I think your teacher's method of showing what kind of problem you want to solve first, and then show the techniques used to solve it is a much better way to do it. And of course turning them into games and puzzles.
A lot of Zelda dungeons are just logic and geometry problems dressed up as a fun game.

[@lennarthoekveen9339]

Super interesting video. As a fan of the Japanese language and culture, this also really helped to make sense of, or *tie together* the at first glance seemingly unrelated meanings of the kanji '和'.

[@ferretsensei]

I still can't understand why food and clothes use 和 and 洋 to differentiate if they are Japanese or Western, but for music and film they use 邦楽 and 邦画 to denote them being Japanese.

[@BoldBooksandBones]

Very good episode. Thank you! Keep up the good work.

[@boyacka1260]

How do you only have 500 subscribers, these videos are amazing. Keep on doing what your doing bro!

[@kaisermuto]

Fortunately Japan had ababus calculator. Even multiplication and division are surely possible.

[@stevenzheng5459]

I would like to correct that Wasan (Japanese mathematics) did independently discover Descartes' Four Circle Formula, but the three circle problem was likely an exercise of the Pythagorean theorem. The formula was explained in Hashimoto Masataka's book Sanpo Tenzan Shogakusho (筭法點竄初學抄) in 1830.

[@igorkomkov9572]

Wow, very interesting video! Thank you for the hard work of creating this vudeo.

[@BrettAKoehn]

Coming from Dog People podcast, loved the video!

[@jacobvilla6139]

Just found your channel from the reddit button video. This channel is very interesting/well made keep it up, this channel will blow up!

[@colin3504]

You keep making awesome videos!

[@ferretsensei]

Thanks for commenting every time! It really does help the channel grow.

[@inedible806]

Ferret I just want to say that your videos are the absolute best!
If you make a grand return, we will all welcome you.
If you’re done, we will be sad, but it’s understandable
But please don’t feel pressured to return. You can come back whenever you feel like it and we’ll all enjoy your videos.

[@ferretsensei]

Thanks for saying that. I do hope to return soon. I have a few videos in various stages of completion - as soon as other stuff calms down I will start posting again!

[@joseloera5849]

Comment to feed the algorithm.

[@rpa92py15]

Gracias amigo 😘

[@daooffibonnacicats8247]

Rip

[@inedible806]

Very cool thank you for the vid!

[@ferretsensei]

Thanks as always for commenting!