History of Algebra

Egyptians

3100 BCE

The first trace of algebra can be traced back to Egyptian times. They were much more advance that other civilizations. When they solved equations, they didn't have symbols, so all equations were solved verbally. They knew how to solved equations with one unknown, and solve problems in two equations and two unknown quantities.

Babylonians

1800 BCE

The Babylonians also contributed to the development of algebra. When their Math was discovered, it consisted of problems that asked for a solution to an unknown number.

Rhind Papyrus

1650 BCE

Algebra can also be traced to the equations in the Rhind Papyrus. The Papyrus was a Egyptian paper is one of the first time we saw algebra in writing,The Papyrus included many mathematical problems.

Diophantus

200 BCE

Diophantus was a Greek mathematician that greaty impacted the subsequent development of the number theory through his series of books that were called " Arithmetia" that contained a collection of algebraic equations. He was also one of the first mathematicians to introduce symbolism to algebra. He also allowed positive rational numbers for the coefficients and solutions in his many equations.

Abu Jaafar Mohammad Ibn Mousa Al Khwarizmi

780

Al Khwarizmi was a Arabic mathematician who created a set of astronomical tables. He also introduced the concept of algorithm in mathematics. Another one of his achievements is that he used Hindu-Arabic numerals in his math. He created a book,"Geography” which presented locations to places many world based. Algebra isn't just variables, its also finding locations using coordinates. This is why this book is one of his best accomplishments.

Al-Karaji

953

Al-Karaji is one of the less known mathematicians who contributed to Algebra. Some people say that he stole or copied others worked, while others say he created his own ideas, like being the first person to free algebra geometric operations and substitute them for arithmetic operations But either way, he contributed to algebra. He gave rules for multiplication and division monomials, and found a rule to finding the square root of a composite quantity.

René Descartes

1596

Descartes was a French mathematician who proved that algebra, geometry, and arithmetic all can be used to solve an equation. He also created a book called (when translated) "The Geometry". It promised a new way of mathematical thinking.

Francois Viete

1603

Viete was a French mathematician who disclosed the way to modern symbolic algebra. He also created a set of books containing trigonometric tables. He also found a new, interesting methods to solve algebraic equations.

Amalie Emmy Noether

1882

Noether is considered "...the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.”, according to Albert Einstein. She was a German mathematician who built ideas of non commutative algebras. She also discovered that "Lagrangia" (a function that describes the state of a dynamic system in terms of position coordinates and their time derivatives) stays the same when coordinate system changes. She can be considered one of the mothers of algebra.

Algebra today

2018

Fast forward to today. Algebra has evolved because of these people and civilizations. We use algebra every day, like when you are shopping and need to stay on budget. Even today, professionals use algebra to solve equations. Many job professions require you to use algebra in some way or form. Whether you like it or not, your world will be and is already filled with algebra, so it is important we know the people who helped form it, and how to do it because we will need it in the future.