Biggs, Norman L. (Author)
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 78
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-21
At the beginning of the 13th century Fibonacci described the rules for making mixtures of all kinds, using the Hindu-Arabic system of arithmetic. His work was repeated in the early printed books of arithmetic, many of which contained chapters on ‘alligation', as the subject became known. But the rules were expressed in words, so the subject often appeared difficult, and occasionally mysterious. Some clarity began to appear when Thomas Harriot introduced a modern form of algebraic notation around 1600, and he was almost certainly the first to express the basic rule of alligation in algebraic terms. Thus a link was forged with the work on Diophantine problems that occupied mathematicians like John Pell and John Kersey in the 17th century. Joseph Fourier's work on mechanics led him to suggest a procedure for handling linear inequalities based on a combination of logic and algebra; he also introduced the idea of describing the set of feasible solutions geometrically. In 1898, inspired by Fourier’s work, Gyula Farkas proved a fundamental theorem about systems of linear inequalities. This topic eventually found many applications, and it became known as Linear Programming. The theorem of Farkas also plays a significant role in Game Theory.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Ilana Wartenberg;
(2012)
The Place of Ibn al-Ahdab's Epistle of the Number in the Diffusion of Arabic Mathematics in Hebrew in Medieval Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB906698085/)
Book
Fibonacci, Leonardo;
Sigler, L. E.;
(2002)
Fibonacci's Liber Abaci: A Translation into Modern English of Leonardo Pisano's Book of Calculation
(/isis/citation/CBB000301710/)
Article
Cohoe, Caleb;
(2013)
There must be a First: Why Thomas Aquinas Rejects Infinite, Essentially Ordered, Causal Series
(/isis/citation/CBB001201144/)
Article
Rossi, Corinna;
Tout, Christopher A.;
(2002)
Were the Fibonacci Series and the Golden Section Known in Ancient Egypt?
(/isis/citation/CBB000200281/)
Article
Ferraro, Giovanni;
(2002)
Convergence and Formal Manipulation of Series from the Origins of Calculus to About 1730
(/isis/citation/CBB000200185/)
Article
Álvarez Polo, Yolima;
Español González, Luis;
(2012)
Algoritmos algebraicos lineales en el primer libro de texto (1917) de Julio Rey Pastor
(/isis/citation/CBB001260003/)
Article
Leïla Hamouda;
Yassine Hachaichi;
(2021)
Note sur l'extraction de la racine carrée d'un entier chez ibn Al-Hayṯam et comparaison avec Al-Baġdādī
(/isis/citation/CBB183440774/)
Article
Johansson, Bo Göran;
(2011)
Cube Root Extraction in Medieval Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB001036222/)
Article
Jens Hoyrup;
(2018)
Explicit and Less Explicit Algorithmic Thinking, 1200-1500. Jordanus de Nemore, and the Contrast between Barthelemy de Romans et Chuquet
(/isis/citation/CBB729622687/)
Article
Rusnock, Paul;
(2013)
On Bolzano's Concept of a Sum
(/isis/citation/CBB001212145/)
Book
Marco Panza;
(2021)
Modes de l’analyse et formes de la géométrie
(/isis/citation/CBB887755156/)
Article
Rey, Javier Docampo;
(2006)
Reading Luca Pacioli's Summa in Catalonia: An Early 16th-Century Catalan Manuscript on Algebra and Arithmetic
(/isis/citation/CBB000670254/)
Book
Yong, Lam Lay;
Ang, Tian Se;
(2004)
Fleeting Footsteps: Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China
(/isis/citation/CBB000470192/)
Article
Boucard, Jenny;
(2013)
Cyclotomie et formes quadratiques dans l'œuvre arithmétique d'Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1829--1840)
(/isis/citation/CBB001211763/)
Article
Terdimou, Maria;
(2007)
Geometry Versus Algebra. Ancient Greek and Western Mathematics:Parallel or Intersecting Options by the Greek Scholars of the 18th Century?
(/isis/citation/CBB000931865/)
Article
Eleonora Sammarchi;
(2019)
Les collections de problèmes algébriques dans le Qisṭās al-muʻādala fīʻilm al-jabr wa’l-muqābala d’al-Zanjānī
(/isis/citation/CBB505707989/)
Book
Gray, Jeremy;
Parshall, Karen Hunger;
(2007)
Episodes in the History of Modern Algebra (1800--1950)
(/isis/citation/CBB000774194/)
Article
Radu, Mircea;
(2003)
A Debate about the Axiomatization of Arithmetic: Otto Hölder against Robert Graßmann
(/isis/citation/CBB000340654/)
Article
Sabine Rommevaux–Tani;
(2016)
Michael Stifel, lecteur de la "Practica arithmetice" de Gerolamo Cardano
(/isis/citation/CBB465327452/)
Article
Lambert, Kevin;
(2013)
A Natural History of Mathematics: George Peacock and the Making of English Algebra
(/isis/citation/CBB001320192/)
Be the first to comment!