A framework for defining the generality of Diophantos' methods in ``Arithmetica'' (Q2577196): Difference between revisions

In his ``Arithmetica'', Diophantus solved a large number of Diophantine problems of varying difficulty. For him, solving such a problem meant finding one solution (today, solving a Diophantine problem usually means finding all solutions). Moreover, his solutions were not presented ``in general form'': his problem II.8 asks to write a given square as a sum of two (nonzero) squares, and the solution begins by specifying this square to be \(16\). It is therefore natural to ask whether Diophantus's solutions are general in the sense that his method would work equally well if we picked, say, \(25\) instead. The author studies problem II.8 in detail and carefully compares the original solution to more modern interpretations. After having gone through some more problems with great care, he addresses the question of the generality of Diophantus' methods.