Italy was a center of mathematical activity after the publication of Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci (1202) and the Treviso Arthmetic of 1478. These books formed the foundation for European mathematics. At some point in the early 1500′s, an Italian mathematician named Scipione del Ferro determined a general solution for what is known as the depressed cubic [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Solving the Cubic
Posted in History of Algebra, Math History on November 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
History of Algebra
Posted in Math History, Mathematical Notation on November 9, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I wrote a few weeks ago about the transmission of the knowledge of Hindu and Arabic mathematicians to Europe in the 12-1300′s and the translation of Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci into Italian dialect in the 1400′s. Over the next 2-300 years, what is generally known as classical algebra began to take shape in Europe. The symbols [...]
