History of Algebra

The first books on Algebra were written

232

Diophantus, a Hellenistic mathematician, wrote a series of books titled, “Arithmetica.” These books were a collection of algebraic problems that had a great impact on the later development of number theory. Diophantus was one of the first mathematicians to introduce symbolism into algebra.

Aryabhata

499

Aryabhata was the first of many great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His most famous work is the Aryabhatiya. In Aryabhatiya, Aryabhata provided results for the summation of series of squares and cubes, which we will be working on this year. He also worked on the approximation for pi.

“The Seventy Books”

783

Jabir ibn Hayyan wrote “The Seventy Books,” which played a huge role in the development of algebra.

Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing

820

This book is an Arabic treatise on mathematics written by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, who was a Persian Mathematician-Astronomer. He wrote this book to enhance calculations. The book solves for the positive roots of polynomial equations up to the second degree.

Fahri des al Karbi

1032

Fahri des al Karbi wrote the most important Arabian book on algebra. He followed the methods of Diophantus and worked on indeterminate equations. He solved quadratic equations both geometrically and algebraically. He proved certain relations between the sum of the first n natural numbers, and the sums of their squares and cubes.

Chinese mathematicians made advancements in algebra

1073

The Chinese began creating methods to solve equations. In addition, they started using negative numbers while solving these equations. This revolutionized algebra because negative numbers had never been used before.

Fibonacci

1202

Fibonacci wrote a book containing the equation x3 + 2x2 + cx = d. This problem hadn’t been solved until he wrote about it.

Canon Mathematicus

1579

Francois Viete is considered the greatest French mathematician of the 16th century and one of the founders of algebra. Canon mathematicus consisted of trigonometric tables computed to 9 decimal places, and contains a systematic collection of trigonometric formulas.

René Descartes

1637

The use of the symbol x in algebra was introduced by René Descartes and was first published in his treatise La Géométrie in 1637. In this treatise, Descartes used letters from the beginning of the alphabet (a, b, c,...) for known quantities, and letters from the end of the alphabet (z, y, x,...) for unknown quantities.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

1799

Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician who made important contributions to the field of algebra. He published a book showing that every polythermal equation has at least one root in the complex plane.