Algebra

The History of Algebra

By Landsey:))
  • 3100 BCE

    Where algebra was first learned

    The history of algebra began in ancient Egypt and Babylon, where people learned to solve linear (ax = b)
  • 3000 BCE

    Old Algebra

    It’s believed that the Ancient Egyptians used complex forms of math as algebra for equations to find approximate areas of circles it goes back to 3000 BC.
  • 1800 BCE

    Babylonian Math

    Babylonian clay tablets showed math problems that involved solving for an unknown value.
  • 830 BCE

    How algebra got it’s name

    The word "algebra" is derived from the Arabic word al-jabr, and this comes from the treatise written in the year 830 by the medieval Persian mathematician
  • 250 BCE

    Diophantus

    In 250 BCE Diophantus of Alexandria brought systematic solution strategies.
  • 598

    Bhraskara and Brahmagupta

    Bhaskara replaces unknown quantities with letters, while Brahmagupta discovers ways to solve systems of equations in India.
  • 1540

    Francois Viete

    Francois Viete starts uses letters to replace variables and uses the +/- signs to represent addition and subtraction.

  • When algebra was “invented”

    In 1637, René Descartes published La Géométrie, inventing analytic geometry and introducing modern algebraic notation.

  • What school algebra was first heard in

    In 1786, algebra was first mentioned in Harvard University's curriculum, but it was probably taught there as early as 1726.

  • Theorem of algebra

    German mathematician Carl Friederich Gauss proves the fundamental theorem of algebra.