dealt with Indian mathematics, specifically the numbers one
through nine, the concept of ZERO, and the DECIMALsystem.
His work made it to Europe, yet it was several centuries before
it became accepted practice.Khayyam, Omar (Ghiyath al-Din Abu’I-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim
Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami, Omar Alkayami) (1048–1131)
Iranian mathematician, astronomer, and poet who wrote books
on music, algebra, and arithmetic before the age of 25, and who
is known as the first to develop a general theory of CUBIC
EQUATIONs. He also worked with RATIOs, and accidentally
proved non-Euclidean geometry properties of figures. His
poetry is found in the famous Rubaiyat,and he is often better
known for his poetic writings than for his work in mathematics.
al-Khw ̄arizm ̄ı, Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Musa(ca. 780–850) The
word algebrawas derived from this Arabian mathematician’s
famous writing, entitled Al-gebr we’l mukabala(or Hisab al-
jabr w’al-muqabala), considered the most important work in
the history of mathematics. Al-gebrmeans restoration, and
refers to adding and subtracting from both sides of the
EQUATION, and al mukabalameans simplification, which deals
with COMBINING LIKE TERMS. Al-Khw ̄arizm ̄ı explained
QUADRATIC EQUATIONs, and gave rules for addition and
subtraction for unknown quantities, SQUAREs, and SQUARE
ROOTs, among others. His work was the first to introduce the
DECIMALsystem and the concept of ZERO. Its translation in the
early 12th century into Latin brought these concepts to the rest
of the world, and helped define the study of algebra as we
know it today.
Kneser, Hellmuth(1898–1973) Russian mathematician credited with
making contributions in many areas of mathematics. He
refused to specialize in just one area, and his works include
differential geometry, non-Euclidean geometry, sums of
SQUAREs, analytic functions, economic theory, quantum theory,
and game theory, among others.
Koopmans, Tjalling Charles(1910–86) Dutch-American physicist,
mathematician, and economist whose important contributions
were in applying mathematics to real-world applications. He was
corecipient of the Nobel Prize, with Soviet mathematician Leonid
Khayyam – Koopmans BIOGRAPHIES
Khayyam – Koopmans BIOGRAPHIES