Sarah Banner History of Mathematics Shanyu Ji Mathematical Symbols and Their Effect on Facing Infinity and Irrationality Increasing complexity of a subject or idea prompts a desire from the human mind to simplify. It strives to break down the idea into several entities, so it may keep track of all parameters and details. With the advancement of mathematics came more unknowns and more solutions. Rather than assigning each mathematical situation its own independent representation, individuals desired to represent mathematical entities in a more general form. A new mathematical language began to form, one in which symbols and abbreviations took the place of words. Its introduction opened the doors to understanding groundbreaking mathematical concepts. Notably, the introduction of symbols to the mathematical world prompted increased exposure to irrational and infinite entities, making their existence difficult to ignore for much longer. Diophantus of Alexandria, labeled by some as the “father of algebra”, is noted to be among the first to use symbols in his calculations. Diophantine equations contained integer coefficients, and were strictly solved for integer solutions. He viewed irrational solutions as impractical and illogical. i Figure 1 depicts a solved problem extracted from Diophantus’ work, Arithmetica.. ii
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Sarah Banner History of Mathematics Shanyu Jishanyuji/History/E2-3.pdf · 2016-10-28 · Sarah Banner History of Mathematics Shanyu Ji ... Sarah Banner History of Mathematics Shanyu
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