Gupta India · 499 AD

Aryabhata and the numbers we use today

In 499 a 23-year-old astronomer named Aryabhata finished a book on mathematics and the stars. India's scholars also built the place-value system with zero that we use every day. Students follow these numbers from India to Baghdad and on to Europe.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 499 to AD 600
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 499 a 23-year-old astronomer named Aryabhata finished a book on mathematics and the stars. India's scholars also built the place-value system with zero that we use every day. Students follow these numbers from India to Baghdad and on to Europe.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain what a place-value number system is and why zero matters in it.
  • Describe two discoveries of Aryabhata in mathematics or astronomy.
  • Trace how Indian numerals traveled west to the Islamic world and Europe.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 499

Where he worked

Open the map in AD 499 and turn on the Cities layer. Find Pataliputra: Aryabhata worked at Kusumapura, usually identified with this city. Which empire ruled here?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 499

A city of astronomers

Fly to Ujjain in central India. Type "Why was Ujjain important for Indian astronomy?" in Ask the atlas. What did Indian astronomers use it for?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 600

Numbers travel west

Zoom out to see India, Persia and the lands further west. Turn on Trade Routes. Which routes could have carried Indian numbers and books to the west?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Try writing 1,888 in Roman numerals and in our numerals. Why did place value make calculating so much easier?
  2. Aryabhata said the Earth turns on its axis, not the sky around it. Why was this hard for people to believe?
  3. He explained eclipses as shadows, not as a demon swallowing the Sun. How does science change old beliefs?
  4. Our numbers are often called "Arabic numerals", although they began in India. Why do inventions often take the name of the people who passed them on?
  5. Why could a young man of 23 write a book that was studied for centuries?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Justinian I in Rule History. He ruled the Eastern Roman Empire while Aryabhata's ideas spread in India, and his officials still wrote numbers with letters of the alphabet. After the round, discuss: how would better mathematics have helped Justinian's builders, tax collectors and generals?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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