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In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

In Our Time: The Buddha

14/03/2002

The Buddha

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Buddha

The life of Siddhartha Gautama and the legacy of his teachings.

Melvyn Bragg discusses the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the originator of Buddhism, and examines why his teachings have now become one of the fastest growing religions of the Western world.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and teachings of The Buddha. Two and a half thousand years ago a young man meditated on life and death and found enlightenment. In that moment he saw his past lives spread out before him and he realised that all life, indeed the very fabric of existence, was made of suffering. That man was Siddhartha Gautama but we know him as The Buddha. He taught us that we have not one but many lives and are constantly reborn in different forms according to the laws of Karma: an immortality that binds us to a cosmic treadmill of death, decay, rebirth and suffering from which the only escape is Nirvana. Buddhism was quickly established as a major religion in South East Asia but now two millenia later it is one of the fastest growing religions of the Western world. Why has it captured the spirit of our times? Is it because there is no compulsion to believe in God? And what is it that Western converts hope to get from Buddhism - truth and enlightenment or simply a spiritual satisfaction that Western religion cannot provide? With Peter Harvey, Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland; Kate Crosby, Lecturer in Buddhist Studies, SOAS; Mahinda Deagallee, Lecturer in the Study of Religions, Bath Spa University College and a Buddhist Monk from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka.

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Simon Singh's Numbers

Simon Singh takes a quirky look at some of the most important numbers in mathematics.

Simon Singh's Numbers: Five Numbers: The Imaginary Number

The Imaginary Number

Five Numbers

BBC Radio 4 - Simon Singh's Numbers, Five Numbers, The Imaginary Number

If the square root of +1 is both +1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?

The imaginary number takes mathematics to another dimension. If the square root of +1 is both +1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?

The imaginary number takes mathematics to another dimension. It was discovered in sixteenth century Italy at a time when being a mathematician was akin to being a modern day rock star, when there was 'nuff respect' to be had from solving a particularly 'wicked' equation. And the wicked equation of the day went like this: 'If the square root of +1 is both +1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?' 

Previously, mathematicians had rolled their eyes skyward and prayed for divine intervention. But where others failed, the creative Italian Rafaello Bombelli triumphed with his invention of the imaginary number. The imaginary number is the square root of -1 and is known as 'i'. 

Imaginary numbers are real numbers multiplied by i. If, like many, you find yourself saying 'but what's the point?' then think on this. Imagine a world without electric circuits. No circuits, so no computers. No computers, so you wouldn't be reading this now. And while engineers need the imaginary number to analyse electrical waves, physicists need it to calculate the fundamental forces that govern our Universe via quantum mechanics. 

And, most bizarrely of all, time might have an imaginary dimension, which might explain how time started. The Big Bang gave birth to our Universe some 15 billion years ago. It was every mother's dream birth, taking less than a second for all time, matter and energy to be born, with no need for an epidural. But if the Big Bang marks the beginning of time and the beginning of matter, what was there before it? How could time just start? 

Einstein's classical general theory of relativity linked together time with the three spatial dimensions we are all familiar with (up - down, left - right, and in - out), creating a four dimensional 'spacetime' in which time can move forwards only. A brilliant theory, but one that comes a cropper when applied to the creation of the Universe.

But invoke quantum theory and a dollop of imaginary time and things begin to make sense ... at least to cosmologists. Imaginary time is measured in imaginary numbers and unlike real time, it can move backwards and forwards like an extra spatial dimension. Apparently, this gives the Big Bang something to start from.

Simon Singh's Numbers: Five Numbers

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Simon Singh takes a quirky look at five of the most important numbers in mathematics.

Simon Singh takes a quirky look at five of the most important numbers in mathematics: zero, pi, the golden ratio, the imaginary number 'i' and infinity.

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