Talk:Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir

Copyright Violation
I'm putting a "copyvio" tag on this article. Here are some comparisons.

Wiki: The Banu Musa brothers were among the first group of mathematicians to begin to carry forward the mathematical developments begun by the ancient Greeks (See House of Wisdom).

Mactutor: "The Banu Musa brothers were among the first group of mathematicians to begin to carry forward the mathematical developments begun by the ancient Greeks."

Wiki: The Banu Musa brothers took a definite step forward, where the Greeks had not; The Greeks had not thought of areas and volumes as numbers, but had only compared ratios of areas etc. The Banu Musa's concept of number is broader than that of the Greeks. For example they describe pi as:

"... the magnitude which, when multiplied by the diameter of a circle, yields the circumference."

Mactutor: In another aspect, however, the Banu Musa made a definite step forward. The Greeks had not thought of areas and volumes as numbers, but had only compared ratios of areas etc. The Banu Musa's concept of number is broader than that of the Greeks. For example they describe π as [2]:-

... the magnitude which, when multiplied by the diameter of a circle, yields the circumference.

Wiki: The Banu Musa also introduce geometrical proofs which involve thinking of the geometric objects as moving. In particular they used kinematic methods to solve the classical problem of 'trisecting an angle'.

Mactutor: "The Banu Musa also introduce geometrical proofs which involve thinking of the geometric objects as moving. In particular they used kinematic methods to solve the classical problem of trisecting an angle."

Wiki: In astronomy the brothers made many contributions. They were instructed by al-Ma'mun to measure a degree of latitude and they made their measurements in the desert in northern Mesopotamia. They also made many observations of the sun and the moon from Baghdad. Muhammad and Ahmad measured the length of the year, obtaining the value of 365 days and 6 hours. Observations of the star Regulus were made by the three brothers from their house on a bridge in Baghdad in 840-41AD, 847-48AD, and 850-51AD.

Mactutor: "In astronomy the brothers made many contributions. They were instructed by al-Ma'mun to measure a degree of latitude and they made their measurements in the desert in northern Mesopotamia. They also made many observations of the sun and the moon from Baghdad. Muhammad and Ahmad measured the length of the year, obtaining the value of 365 days and 6 hours. Observations of the star Regulus were made by the three brothers from their house on a bridge in Baghdad in 840-41, 847-48, and 850-51."

The decision of what to do will be made by somebody else, but I'd recommend that this entire article be deleted as a blatant violation of Mactutor's copyright (November, 1999). I checked the history, and the offending material is in the original version of this page. DavidCBryant 13:32, 9 April 2007 (UTC)