Algebra in Ancient and Modern Times (Q4396495)

The book arose out of a course entitled ``Mathematics in ancient and modern times: The birth of modern algebra''. This describes exactly what the author had done in his book. This history of algebra does not nearly reach the modern times of Artin, Noether, van der Waerden etc., but only the beginning of the 19th century. The chapters are entitled: ``Some history of early mathematics'', ``Solutions for the cubic and biquadratic equations'' and ``Some themes from modern algebra''. The main topic of the first two chapters are the Pythagorean triplets, the solution of Pell's equation by Indian mathematicians, the approximation of irrational numbers, especially of \(\pi\), and the solution of the cubic and the biquadratic equations. This last topic covers nearly a quarter of the book. In the last chapter the algebra of complex numbers is described in greater detail. Furthermore, the fundamental theorem of algebra, the solvability of equations of degree greater than four as well as quaternions are treated in short items. The book was written for freshman students who should learn algebra by its history. So the topics mentioned above are treated from a mathematical as well as a historical point of view. The material is presented in a way that students should see how ideas have emerged. In some cases a rough look forward to the modern development is given. Many sections are supplemented by notes and exercises, which contain a lot of mathematics as well as additional historical facts. The book is completed by a very short list of references and an index.