‘Vol. 9, Nos. 1-4 (1987), 57-58 ———— Gsnits-Bharoti {UAL NO. SOC. HST Mam Short Note Approximate Formula For The Length of a Chord S. A. NAIMPALLY Department of Mathematical Sciences, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7B El, Canada The famous Indian mathematician Bhaskaracarya or Bhaskara II of the early twelfth century gave a formula for the approximate length y of the chord of a circle in terms of its diameter d, arc length cand the circum- ference p. The formula is y=Ade(p — o){1.25p? = e(p — o)]-4 This is essentially same as the formula for sine given by Bhaskara I (7th cent.), Bhaskardcdrya never gave any proofs and it is difficult to trace its derivation. My teacher late Professor N. H. Phadke, in his Marathi trans- lation of Lilavati (English translation by Professor K. S, Patwardhan and the authot—to be published, cf N/37) gives an explanation which is not complete. Here we proceed along the same lines and give a complete proof. Obviously, y is zero when c= p or c= 0 and so y is proportional to ¢(p —¢). Also y is proportional to d. Thus y is proportional to de(p — ¢) which is of the third degree. To get a proper dimensional formula for y, we must divide by a quadratic in p and c. So y = ade(p — c)[Bp? + ype + 8c%)-! To compute a, B, 7, 8 we consider four special cases: (i) y = d when ¢ = p/2, (ii) y = 4/2 when ¢ = 9/6, (iii) y = V2 4/2 when ¢ = p/4, (iv) y = V3 d/2 when ¢ = p3. in order to get Bhaskardcarya’s formula, we have to choose 2 = 24/17 and 4/3 = 64/37. Professor Phadke considers (i) and (ii) but assumes the form of y to be ade(p — c)[8p? — c(p — c))-!. The following table gives a (9 Indian Society For History of Mathematics8 SHORT NOTE, comparison between the actual values of y and Bhdskardcarya’s for c=p/4n, n=l to 9, d=2.* n Bhaskara It ‘Actual 1 1412 1414 2 0.167 0.765 3 0.521 0.518 4 0,393 0,390 5 0316 0.313 6 0.264 0.261 7 0.227 0.224 8 0.198 0.196 9 oT 0.174 *Nores: (i) This research was partially supported by an operating grant NSERC (Canada). Gi) cf. Gapita Bharati, Vol. 8 (1986), pp. 39-41, for related matters. Gavita Bharati