Talk:History of algebra

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Mathematics rating:	A-BB+ Class	High Priority	Field: Algebra (historical)
Please update this rating as the article progresses, or if the rating is inaccurate. Click to show/hide comments. Please add to or update the comments to suggest improvements to the article. Expand modern/abstract algebra, then nominate for GA-class and A-class. Geometry guy 21:46, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Omar Khayyam and algebraic geometry

I have removed the sentence:

Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam, developed algebraic geometry^{[citation needed]}.

Since it is not sourced and also because there is evidence to the contrary:

Boyer, Carl B. (1991). "The Arabic Hegemony", A History of Mathematics, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 241-242. ISBN 0471543977. “One of the most fruitful contributions of Arabic eclecticism was the tendency to close the gap between numerical and geometric algebra. The decisive step in this direction came much later with Descartes, but Omar Khayyam was moving in this direction when he wrote, "Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain. No attention should be paid to the fact that algebra and geometry are different in appearance. Algebras are geometric facts which are proved."” 

So although Omar Khayyam was moving in the right direction he did not actually get to the destination and so he did not "create" algebraic geometry. selfworm 23:30, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What, no Descartes?

A history of algebra with nary a mention of René Descartes? How's that? Is his invention of analytic geometry not considered part of the history of algebra? -GTBacchus^(talk) 21:13, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Don't worry, there'll soon be mention of him. Just give me about one to two weeks. selfworm^Talk) 00:33, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removed incorrect citation

I have removed the sentence "is initiated by Abū al-Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī and" since this is not what the source says. The source clearly says that he "took the first steps toward the introduction of algebraic symbolism." A look at his notaion will reveal that although his notation was closer to symbolic algebra than that of Diophantus or Brahmagupta, he did not have symbolic algebra since he used abbreviations such as the following,

j from jadah meaning "root"
[...]
m from mal for x²
k form kab for x³
al-Qalasadi

which are not considered as being a part of symbolic algebra.

That he did not "initiate" it is even clearly stated in the given source:

Certainly symbols were not the invention of al-Qalasadi. Perhaps even more telling is that the particular symbols he used were not even his own invention since the same ones had been used by other Muslim mathematicians in North Africa 100 years earlier. [...] We must stress that he does not clam originality - this was the incorrect invention of historians 400 years later.al-Qalasadi

Take care. selfworm^Talk) 07:42, 13 February 2008 (UTC)