Volume: 27; 2009; 174 pp; Softcover
MSC: Primary 01; 17; 20; 30; 35; 40;
Print ISBN: 978-0-8218-4473-1
Product Code: MAWRLD/27
List Price: $40.00
AMS Member Price: $32.00
MAA Member Price: $36.00
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-1811-3
Product Code: MAWRLD/27.E
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AMS Member Price: $29.60
MAA Member Price: $33.30
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Supplemental Materials
An Introduction to the History of Algebra: Solving Equations from Mesopotamian Times to the Renaissance
Share this pageJacques Sesiano
Translated by Anna Pierrehumbert
... a basic introduction to the types of problems that illustrate the earliest forms of algebra. It would be particularly useful for an instructor who is looking for examples to help enliven a course on elementary algebra with problems drawn from actual historical texts.
—Warren Van Egmond about the French edition
for MathSciNet
This book does not aim to give an exhaustive survey of the history
of algebra up to early modern times but merely to present some
significant steps in solving equations and, wherever applicable, to
link these developments to the extension of the number system. Various
examples of problems, with their typical solution methods, are
analyzed, and sometimes translated completely. Indeed, it is another
aim of this book to ease the reader's access to modern editions of old
mathematical texts, or even to the original texts; to this end, some
of the problems discussed in the text have been reproduced in the
appendices in their original language (Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew,
French, German, Provençal, and Italian) with explicative notes.
Readership
Undergraduate students, graduate students, and research mathematicians interested in the history of mathematics.
Reviews & Endorsements
Highly Recommended.
-- CHOICE Magazine
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
An Introduction to the History of Algebra: Solving Equations from Mesopotamian Times to the Renaissance
- Cover Cover11 free
- Title page iii5 free
- Contents v7 free
- Preface vii9 free
- Algebra in Mesopotamia 111 free
- Algebra in ancient Greece 1727
- Algebra in the Islamic world 5363
- Algebra in medieval Europe 93103
- Algebra in the Renaissance 123133
- Appendix A. Mesopotamian texts in translation 143153
- Appendix B. Greek and Latin texts 147157
- Appendix C. Arabic texts 157167
- Appendix D. Hebrew text 163173
- Appendix E. French, German, Italian, and Provençal texts 165175
- Index 171181 free
- Back Cover Back Cover1187