Yang Hui

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial expansion in 1665. The Chinese version, however, is centuries older. It was included as an illustration in Zhu Shijie's Siyuan yujian (1303; “Precious Mirror of Four Elements”), where it was already called the “Old Method.”

Yang Hui: Media

Chinese mathematician

Images

Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial expansion in 1665. The Chinese version, however, is centuries older. It was included as an illustration in Zhu Shijie's Siyuan yujian (1303; “Precious Mirror of Four Elements”), where it was already called the “Old Method.”

Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial...

By permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library

VIEW MORE in these related Britannica articles: