- Timeline of algebra and geometry
A
timeline ofalgebra andgeometry Before 1000 BC
* ca.
2000 BC —Scotland ,Carved Stone Balls exhibit a variety of symmetries including all of the symmetries ofPlatonic solid s.
*1800 BC —Moscow Mathematical Papyrus , findings volume of a frustum
*1650 BC —Rhind Mathematical Papyrus , copy of a lost scroll from around 1850 BC, the scribeAhmes presents one of the first known approximate values of π at 3.16, the first attempt atsquaring the circle , earliest known use of a sort ofcotangent , and knowledge of solving first order linear equations
*1300 BC —Berlin papyrus (19th dynasty) contains a quadratic equation and its solution. [http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_egyptpapyrus.html#berlin]1st millennium BC
*
800 BC —Baudhayana , author of the Baudhayana Sulba Sutra, aVedic Sanskrit geometric text, containsquadratic equations , and calculates thesquare root of 2 correct to five decimal places
* ca.600 BC — the other Vedic “Sulba Sutras ” (“rule of chords” inSanskrit ) usePythagorean triples , contain of a number of geometrical proofs, and approximate π at 3.16
* 5th century BC —Hippocrates of Chios utilizes lunes in an attempt to square the circle
* 5th century BC —Apastamba , author of the Apastamba Sulba Sutra, anotherVedic Sanskrit geometric text, makes an attempt atsquaring the circle and also calculates thesquare root of 2 correct to five decimal places
*530 BC —Pythagoras studies propositionalgeometry and vibrating lyre strings; his group also discover the irrationality of thesquare root oftwo ,
*370 BC — Eudoxus states themethod of exhaustion forarea determination
*300 BC —Euclid in his "Elements" studiesgeometry as anaxiomatic system , proves the infinitude ofprime number s and presents theEuclidean algorithm ; he states the law of reflection in "Catoptrics", and he proves thefundamental theorem of arithmetic
*260 BC —Archimedes proved that the value of π lies between 3 + 1/7 (approx. 3.1429) and 3 + 10/71 (approx. 3.1408), that the area of a circle was equal to π multiplied by the square of the radius of the circle and that the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line is 4/3 multiplied by the area of a triangle with equal base and height. He also gave a very accurate estimate of the value of the square root of 3.
*225 BC —Apollonius of Perga writes "On Conic Sections" and names theellipse ,parabola , andhyperbola ,
*150 BC — Jain mathematicians in India write the “Sthananga Sutra”, which contains work on the theory of numbers, arithmetical operations,geometry , operations withfractions , simple equations,cubic equations , quartic equations, andpermutations andcombinations
*140 BC —Hipparchus develops the bases oftrigonometry .1st millennium
*
1st century —Heron of Alexandria , the earliest fleeting reference to square roots of negative numbers.
*250 —Diophantus uses symbols for unknown numbers in terms of syncopatedalgebra , and writes "Arithmetica ", one of the earliest treatises on algebra
* ca.340 —Pappus of Alexandria states his hexagon theorem and his centroid theorem
*500 —Aryabhata writes the “Aryabhata-Siddhanta”, which first introduces the trigonometric functions and methods of calculating their approximate numerical values. It defines the concepts ofsine andcosine , and also contains the earliest tables of sine and cosine values (in 3.75-degree intervals from 0 to 90 degrees)
*600s —Bhaskara I gives a rational approximation of the sine function
*600s —Brahmagupta invents the method of solving indeterminate equations of the second degree and is the first to use algebra to solve astronomical problems. He also develops methods for calculations of the motions and places of various planets, their rising and setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of eclipses of the sun and the moon
*628 —Brahmagupta writes the "Brahma-sphuta-siddhanta", where zero is clearly explained, and where the modernplace-value Indian numeral system is fully developed. It also gives rules for manipulating bothnegative and positive numbers , methods for computingsquare roots , methods of solving linear andquadratic equation s, and rules for summing series,Brahmagupta's identity , and theBrahmagupta theorem
*700s —Virasena gives explicit rules for theFibonacci sequence , gives the derivation of thevolume of afrustum using aninfinite procedure, and also deals with thelogarithm tobase 2 and knows its laws
*700s —Shridhara gives the rule for finding the volume of a sphere and also the formula for solving quadratic equations
*820 —Al-Khwarizmi — Persian mathematician, father of algebra, writes the "Al-Jabr", later transliterated as "Algebra ", which introduces systematic algebraic techniques for solving linear andquadratic equation s. Translations of his book onarithmetic will introduce the Hindu-Arabicdecimal number system to the Western world in the 12th century. The term "algorithm " is also named after him.
*820 —Al-Mahani conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such asdoubling the cube to problems in algebra.
*895 —Thabit ibn Qurra : the only surviving fragment of his original work contains a chapter on the solution and properties ofcubic equation s. He also generalized thePythagorean theorem , and discovered the theorem by which pairs ofamicable number s can be found, (i.e., two numbers such that each is the sum of the proper divisors of the other).
* ca.900 —Abu Kamil of Egypt had begun to understand what we would write in symbols as
*953 —Al-Karaji is the “first person to completely freealgebra from geometrical operations and to replace them with the arithmetical type of operations which are at the core of algebra today. He was first to define themonomial s , , , … and , , , … and to give rules for products of any two of these. He started a school of algebra which flourished for several hundreds of years”. He also discovered thebinomial theorem forinteger exponent s, which “was a major factor in the development ofnumerical analysis based on the decimal system.”
*975 —Al-Batani — Extended the Indian concepts of sine and cosine to other trigonometrical ratios, like tangent, secant and their inverse functions. Derived the formula: and .1000–1500
*ca.
1000 —Abū Sahl al-Qūhī (Kuhi) solvesequation s higher than the second degree.
*ca.1000 —Law of sines is discovered by Muslim mathematicians, but it is uncertain who discovers it first betweenAbu-Mahmud al-Khujandi ,Abu Nasr Mansur , and Abu al-Wafa.
*1070 —Omar Khayyám begins to write "Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra" and classifies cubic equations.
* ca.1100 —Omar Khayyám “gave a complete classification ofcubic equation s with geometric solutions found by means of intersectingconic section s.” He became the first to find general geometric solutions ofcubic equation s and laid the foundations for the development ofanalytic geometry andnon-Euclidean geometry . He also extracted roots using thedecimal system (Hindu-Arabic numeral system ).
*1100s — Bhaskara Acharya writes the “Bijaganita” (“Algebra ”), which is the first text that recognizes that a positive number has two square roots
*1130 —Al-Samawal gave a definition of algebra: “ [it is concerned] with operating on unknowns using all the arithmetical tools, in the same way as the arithmetician operates on the known.”
*1135 —Sharafeddin Tusi followed al-Khayyam's application of algebra to geometry, and wrote a treatise oncubic equation s which “represents an essential contribution to anotheralgebra which aimed to studycurve s by means ofequation s, thus inaugurating the beginning ofalgebraic geometry .” [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Arabic_mathematics.html Arabic mathematics] , "MacTutor History of Mathematics archive ",University of St Andrews , Scotland]
* ca.1250 —Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi attempts to develop a form ofnon-Euclidean geometry .
* 1400s —Nilakantha Somayaji , aKerala school mathematician, writes the “Aryabhatiya Bhasya”, which contains work on infinite-series expansions, problems of algebra, and spherical geometry16th century
*
1520 —Scipione dal Ferro develops a method for solving “depressed” cubic equations (cubic equations without an x2 term), but does not publish.
*1535 —Niccolo Tartaglia independently develops a method for solving depressed cubic equations but also does not publish.
*1539 —Gerolamo Cardano learns Tartaglia's method for solving depressed cubics and discovers a method for depressing cubics, thereby creating a method for solving all cubics.
*1540 —Lodovico Ferrari solves thequartic equation .17th century
* 1600s - Putumana Somayaji writes the "Paddhati", which presents a detailed discussion of various trigonometric series
*1619 -René Descartes discoversanalytic geometry (Pierre de Fermat claimed that he also discovered it independently),
*1619 -Johannes Kepler discovers two of theKepler-Poinsot polyhedra .
*1637 - Pierre de Fermat claims to have provenFermat's Last Theorem in his copy ofDiophantus ' "Arithmetica",
*1637 - First use of the termimaginary number byRené Descartes ; it was meant to be derogatory.18th century
*
1722 -Abraham de Moivre statesde Moivre's formula connectingtrigonometric function s andcomplex number s,
*1733 -Giovanni Gerolamo Saccheri studies what geometry would be like if Euclid's fifth postulate were false,
*1796 -Carl Friedrich Gauss proves that the regular 17-gon can be constructed using only acompass and straightedge
*1797 -Caspar Wessel associates vectors withcomplex number s and studies complex number operations in geometrical terms,
*1799 - Carl Friedrich Gauss proves thefundamental theorem of algebra (every polynomial equation has a solution among the complex numbers),
*1799 -Paolo Ruffini partially proves theAbel–Ruffini theorem that quintic or higher equations cannot be solved by a general formula,19th century
*
1806 -Louis Poinsot discovers the two remainingKepler-Poinsot polyhedra .
*1806 -Jean-Robert Argand publishes proof of theFundamental theorem of algebra and theArgand diagram ,
*1824 -Niels Henrik Abel partially proves theAbel–Ruffini theorem that the general quintic or higher equations cannot be solved by a general formula involving only arithmetical operations and roots,
*1829 -Bolyai , Gauss, and Lobachevsky invent hyperbolicnon-Euclidean geometry ,
*1832 -Évariste Galois presents a general condition for the solvability ofalgebraic equation s, thereby essentially foundinggroup theory andGalois theory ,
*1837 -Pierre Wantsel proves that doubling the cube andtrisecting the angle are impossible with only a compass and straightedge, as well as the full completion of the problem of constructability of regular polygons
*1843 - William Hamilton discovers the calculus ofquaternion s and deduces that they are non-commutative,
*1847 -George Boole formalizessymbolic logic in "The Mathematical Analysis of Logic", defining what now is called Boolean algebra,
*1854 -Bernhard Riemann introducesRiemannian geometry ,
*1854 -Arthur Cayley shows thatquaternion s can be used to represent rotations in four-dimensionalspace ,
*1858 -August Ferdinand Möbius invents theMöbius strip ,
*1870 -Felix Klein constructs an analytic geometry for Lobachevski's geometry thereby establishing its self-consistency and the logical independence of Euclid's fifth postulate,
*1873 -Charles Hermite proves that e is transcendental,
*1878 - Charles Hermite solves the general quintic equation by means of elliptic and modular functions
*1882 -Ferdinand von Lindemann proves that π is transcendental and that therefore the circle cannot be squared with a compass and straightedge,
*1882 - Felix Klein invents theKlein bottle ,
*1899 -David Hilbert presents a set of self-consistent geometric axioms in "Foundations of Geometry",20th century
*
1901 -Élie Cartan develops theexterior derivative ,
*1905 - Einstein's theory ofspecial relativity .
*1912 -Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer presents theBrouwer fixed-point theorem ,
*1916 - Einstein's theory ofgeneral relativity .
*1930 -Casimir Kuratowski shows that thethree-cottage problem has no solution,
*1931 -Georges de Rham develops theorems incohomology andcharacteristic class es,
*1933 -Karol Borsuk andStanislaw Ulam present the Borsuk-Ulam antipodal-point theorem,
*1955 -H. S. M. Coxeter et al. publish the complete list ofuniform polyhedron ,
*1981 -Mikhail Gromov develops the theory ofhyperbolic group s, revolutionizing both infinite group theory and global differential geometry,
*1983 - theclassification of finite simple groups , a collaborative work involving some hundred mathematicians and spanning thirty years, is completed,
*1991 -Alain Connes andJohn W. Lott developnon-commutative geometry ,
*1998 -Thomas Hales (almost certainly) proves theKepler conjecture ,21st century
*
2003 -Grigori Perelman proves thePoincaré conjecture ,
*2007 - a team of researches throughout North America and Europe used networks of computers to mapE8 (mathematics) . [ Elizabeth A. Thompson, MIT News Office, "Math research team maps E8" http://www.huliq.com/15695/mathematicians-map-e8 ]
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