The History of Algebra

Plimpton 322

1800 BCE

Plimpton 322 tablet creates a table of Pythagorean triples in Babylonian Cuneiform. In the past, there has been some debate on what the tablet is supposed to mean and what its purpose is. But, we do know that he/she was a scribe or a professional mathematician in their time.

Diophantus of Alexandria

200

Alexandrian mathematician Diophantus, was considered the "father of algebra”. At this time he wrote his famous Arithmetica, a series of books featuring algebraic equations and his theory of numbers. Even though many of these books can’t be found, they still made a huge impact on the history of algebra.

Early Math in China

625

Wang Xiaotong, a Chinese mathematician found numerical solutions to some specific cubic equations. His main contribution to the history of algebra was the Jigu suanjing which is translated to the Continuation of Ancient Mathematics. Xiaotong also presented this to the emperor Li Yuan, which was most likely a great honor at the time.

Abū Sahl al-Qūhī

1000

Abū Sahl al-Qūhī solved equations greater than the second degree. He was also an astronomer, as well as a physicist. He mainly flourished in the 10th century in Baghdad and is considered one of the best Muslim geometers in his time.

Bhaskara Acharya

1100

Bhaskara Acharya wrote “Bijaganita”, the first source that recognized how a positive number has two square roots. He has been called the greatest mathematician of medieval India and was also an astronomer. He is mostly recognized for his discovery of the principles of differential calculus and how it applicates to astronomical problems.

Al-Samawal

1130

Al-Samawal gave a definition for algebra, “it’s concerned with operating on the unknowns using all the arithmetical tools, in the same way as the arithmetician operates on the known.” He was also an astronomer and a physician. He wrote the mathematical treatise al-Bahir fi’l-jabr, which means, ‘the brilliant in algebra’ at the age of nineteen.

Math in Italy

1535

Scipione del Ferro and Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia independently solved a general cubic equation for algebra in Italy. Scipione del Ferro was a very private man and he only showed his work to his close group of mathematician friends. Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia made great efforts to improve arithmetic, and also had complete discussions of numerical operations.

René Descartes

1637

René Descartes introduced the letters z, y, and x to be used as variables. Descartes was also involved in philosophy and science. The Cartesian coordinate system was also named after him and he’s credited as the ‘father of analytical geometry’ which is the bridge between algebra and geometry.

Niels Henrik Abel

1824

Niels Henrik Abel proved that the general quintic equation couldn’t be solved with radicals. Abel also made contributions in many other fields and also gave meticulous proos showing that the binomial theorem was valid for all numbers. Even though he died at the young age of 26, he contributed much more to math than most other people do in their whole life.

Emmy Noether

1926

Emmy Noether extended David Hilbert's theory on the finite basis problem to representations of finite groups over fields. Noether also contributed to ideas in abstract algebra and theoretical physics. This included her theories of rings, fields and algebras.