What is algebra? + Algebra involves thinking logically, rather than numerically (as in arithmetic). + In arithmetic you reason (calculate) with numbers; in algebra you reason (logically) about numbers. + Arithmetic involves quantitative reasoning with numbers; algebra involves qualitative reasoning about numbers. + Akey feature of algebra is you introduce a name for an unknown and reason logically to find its value. + Substituting numbers in an algebraic formula to obtain a numerical answer is arithmetic, not algebra; deriving that formula in the first place is algebra.ipa eta ner cimnncninctmicli Babylonian geometric algebra * Some Babylonian writings show they used a geometric form of algebra that involved introducing a geometric unknown and reasoning to find its value. + The unknown was a line and, they performed geometrical operations on this unknown line to get the answer. + By the modern definition of algebra, this was “geometric algebra.” + They sometimes solved arithmetic problems using this geometric algebra.A Babylonian problem “IL added the area of my two squares: 1,525. (The side) of the second square equals 2/3 of the side of the first and another 5 more.” ; NOTE: The Babylonians expressed this using base-60 numbers. | The solution given was in the form of a step-by- step geometric procedure. The problem is equivalent to the symbolic equations x? + y? = 1525 y=(2Bx+5 The Egyptians (Rhind papyrus), the Chinese (The Nine Chapters | \of the Mathematical Art), and early Greeks (Elements) could solve . similar problems, but their methods were not really algebraic. :Geometric reasoning; an example Where we would write the algebraic identity (a+ bP =a? + 2ab+ F they drew the following geometric diagram } : | bHe solved polynomial nec involving powers up to 6. Diophantus He wrote a multi-volume (“algebraic”) or HANTE any Mt work, Arithmetica. First clearly recognizable algebra: * Le., introduce an unknown number and reason logically to find its value. Diophantus lived in Alexandria (Egypt), between 150 and 250 CE. He used letters (literals) to denote the unknowns, but that is purely notational. He used negative numbers in calculations. He showed how to solve equations by using restoration and confrontation. In modern terms, these correspond vaguely to (1) moving a quantity from one side to the other with a change in sign and (2) eliminating like terms from both sides. aBrahmagupta + Brahmagupta (598-668 CE) + 628: Wrote the book Brahmasphutasiddhanti + ~“Correctly Established Teachings of Brahma” + First appearance of zero + Recognizable algebra + First complete solution (including zero and negative numbers) to quadratic equations.Al-Khwarizmi + Abo ‘Abdallah Mubammad ibn Masi al-Khwarizmi (c.780 - c.850 CE) ca 825, “On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals” ca 830, al-Kitab al-ukiasar & hisab al-jabr wa'- muqdbala “al-jabr wa’l-muqibalah” = “restoration and confrontation” ~*“The Abridged Book on Calculation by Restoration and Confrontation” ~“The Abridged Book on Algebra” What is algebra useful for? al-Khwarizmi's introduction: “... what is easiest and most useful in arithmetic, such as men constantly require in cases of inheritance, legacies, partition, lawsuits, and trade, and in all their dealings with one another, or where the measuring of lands, the digging of canals, geometrical computations, and other objects of various sorts and kinds are concerned.” + 4 9 oe