柳河春三"洋算用法"における蘭和数学用語記号について

Abstract

幕末期に,洋学者柳河春三は"洋算用法初編"を著し,西洋算術の解説を行った(安政4年)。同書では,アラビア数字を用いて,西洋数学の考え方を基に,筆算による計算四則,比例計算が述べられている。本稿の目的は,"洋算用法初編"のなかで述べられているオランダ語の数学用語{己号とそれらの日本語訳について,同書の解説との関連において考察すること,及びこれらの数学用語・記号が現在の小学校算数教材のどの部分に対応しているかを調べることである。

Shunsan YANAGAWA (1832-1870) was a Western learning scholar worked through the late of the Edo period to the early Meiji era. He published a book so named "Yosan Yoho" or Usage of Western Arithmetic, Edo, in 1857, which was a first mathematics book written from a viewpoint of Western or Dutch mathematics, in Japanese. In this book, S. Yanagawa explained an elementary arithmetic, that is, Arabic numerals, elementary calculations, and proportional relations A : B = C: D, in connection with the Wasan or Japanese mathematics. During his explanation of Western arithmetic, the author gives about 45 Dutch mathematical terms and notations, except the terms and notations on weights and measures, and their Japanese translations. The purpose of this paper is to consider these mathematical terms and notations in connection with the explanations of usage of arithmetic by S. Yanagawa and to compare with the "Terms and Notations" in the "Government course guidelines for elementary school, Arithmetic". In roughly speaking, the terms and notations in "Yosan Yoho" are contained in the "Terms and Notations" in the "Government course guidelines for elementary school, Arithmetic", except the one of inequality, Greatest Common Measure, Least Common Multiple, and some calculations of fractions.