Chapter 5

Part II
The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Pappus of Alexandria was one of the last scolars
of the Museum. His role in mathematics is
significant as he put together a collection of
work called Mathematical Collection. He was
what we would call a “commentator”. He tried
to bring attention back to the study of Greek
Mathematics.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Hypatia, the First Woman Mathematician
Hypatia was the daughter and pupil of Theon of
Alexandria. She was multitalented. She worked
on mathematics, medicine, philosophy and
wrote commentaries on some of Diophantus’s
work. She was accused by the Christians of
being a pagan. She was attacked by a mod and “slashed
by sharp oyster shells, and finally torn limb from limb,
her remains delivered to the flames.”
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
About two hundred years pass since Hypatia
dies. The scene a mathematics across the world
looks better than in the western world.
In the Arab world the new religion, Islam, was
emerging. The Arabic scholars purpose was to
absorb all Greek knowledge. In addition, the
House of Wisdom was established, a place like
the Museum of Alexandria.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
The most famous of all Arabic mathematicians
was Mohamed ibn Mûsâ al-Khowârizmî
He was the one to write the book called
“Book of Addition and Subtraction According to
the Hindu Calculations.” He introduced us to the
Hindu decimal numeral system, the symbols for
1 – 9, with a notion of 0. Due to the influence of
the book, the west named these numerals
Arabic.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
The name “algebra” is the “European corruption
of al-jabr” which was a word in the title of
another one of his books. This book discussed
the two principal operations the Arabs used in
solving equations; reunion and reduction.
In addition, his name is also been used to create
the word algorithm.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Let’s consider what types of problems they
worked on.
Quadratics: They divided them into three types:
1) x 2  ax  b
2) x 2  b  ax
3)
x  ax  b
2

Only positive coefficients wer allowed.

 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Method 1 to solve quadratics:
Say x 2  8 x  9
Start with a square of side x.

x2
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Then Add to this square 8x, by adding to each
side of the square a rectangle of side (8/4)x as:
Which gives x2 + 8x
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Now, to complete the square of sides x + 2*(8/4)
we would need to add 4*(8/2)2, to give us
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
So, algebraically, this would mean
x 2  8x  9
2 2
8 2 8 8
( x  )  ( x  8x)  4   9     9  16  25
2

2 4 2

Hence, the side of the square will be x + 4 = 5,

which means that x should be 1.
What is this process called?
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
In general, this looks like
x 2  ax  b
2 2
a 2 a a
( x  )  ( x  ax)  4   b   
2

2 4 2
2
a a
x  b  
2 2
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Another way of looking at the same equation,
would be:
Start with a square of side x
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
To complete this square of sides x + 8/2 we need
only add a square of sides 8/2
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Add to this two rectangles along two sides, as:

So we added 2*(8/2)*x
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Algebraically, this looks as:

x 2  8x  9
2 2
8 2 8 8 8
( x  )  x  2  x     9     9  16  25
2

2 2 2 2

Which gives us the same general solution as

before.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Another great Arabic mathematician was Abû
Kâmil. His work on radicals was great!
He developed the following formula:

a  b  a  b  2 ab

First, let’s try to prove this and second let’s use

this to compute 3 2
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
Some cool number theory came from Thâbit’s
Book on Determination of Amicable Numbers.
Def: An amicable number pairs are pairs of
numbers each of which is equal to the sume of
the proper divisors of the other.
If we go to page 246 of our book, you will find
his rule of generating such pairs. HOT
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
In addition to the growth of Arabic
mathematics, we are at this point able to find
records of much Chinese mathematics as well.
The beginnings of the Chinese mathematical
tradition is written in the book called The Nine
Chapters on the Mathematical Art. The way we
know of this book is via the commentary of Liu
Hui.
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
One of the cool achievements they recorded can
be found on Page 260 of our book. Let’s read it!
 The Twilight of Greek Mathematics:
Diophantus
References:
The History of Mathematics – An Introduction
by D. M. Burton