The Facts On File Algebra Handbook

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2000 B.C.E.lThe Babylonians are the first to solve QUADRATIC EQUATIONs in radicals. ca. 1650 B.C.E.lThe Ahmes papyrus is written ...

ca. 300 B.C.E.lEUCLIDwrites The Elements. ca. 250 B.C.E.lARISTARCHUS OF SAMOSuses mathematical computations to determine that th ...

ca. 250lDIOPHANTUS OF ALEXANDRIAis the first to use symbols to represent unknown quantities. 400 lHYPATIAbecomes head of the Pla ...

introduction of the FIBONACCI SERIES, which is explained in the book as “A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surround ...

and the work turns into a three-volume compilation that is finally published in 1509. 1498 lJOHANNES WIDMANwrites Mercantile Ari ...

about 1600. The title of Recorde’s book is a pun, based on the Latin word cosa,used to represent unknown quantities in algebra, ...

1613 lPIETRO ANTONIO CATALDIinvents CONTINUED FRACTIONs. 1614 lJOHN NAPIERinvents the concept of LOGARITHMs, discussed in his bo ...

1632 lGalileo writes Dialog Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,which is not an explicit statement that he does not believe i ...

1647 lDescartes’s theory of vortices, found in his book Principia Philosophiae,becomes a major contribution to the field of math ...

1659 lVincenzo Viviani, a student of Galileo’s, is responsible for the discovery and restoration of a lost book on conic section ...

Rival mathematician Huygens had done the same three months earlier, unbeknownst to Hooke. lThe speed of light is first measured ...

Newton’s work in the field. A bitter dispute follows. As president of the organization, Newton requests an investigation, then a ...

unknown, but does not include the previously published Ars conjectandi. 1755 lEuler introduces the Greek letter sigma, notated a ...

1799 lThe Royal Danish Academy publishes a paper by Caspar Wessel that shows the geometric interpretation of complex numbers, bu ...

1844 lA 20-year-old German named Johann Dase correctly computes the value of pi in his head to 205 decimal places, without writi ...

1859 lEdward Fitzgerald translates nearly 600 poems. Known as the Rubaiyat,these poems are attributed to mathematician OMAR KHAY ...

1935 lAlbert Einstein writes Noether’s obituary, and lauds her as a mathematical genius. 1938 lDame MARY CARTWRIGHTand John Litt ...

Nonetheless, a proof for the CONJECTUREhas never been discovered. lA mathematician from the University of Michigan, Thomas Hales ...

SECTION FOUR CHARTS & TABLES ...