A Brief History of Algebra

Algebra is not the work of one person trying to make everybody’s life miserable. It was actually created to make life easier for ancient people. Algebra has been a process which began in Babylonia and Egypt around 1650 BC (Stallings 230). The Babylonians actually came up with a way to use algebra to calculate the size of a reed, which was used to measure the perimeter of a rectangle or trapezoid (Yuste 298). Essentially this was used to determine or survey plots of land. Although the ancient people of Egypt and Babylonia were using a cruel version of the equations we know today it was still the beginning of it all.


Some people believe that algebra was first created by the Greeks, this is not true (Kvasz 290). Although the Greeks did have a way of solving a quadratic equation it did not involve algebra. The Greeks could only solve a quadratic equation with an exponent of 2(a square) or an exponent of 3(a cube), because they used geometry to solve their problems and an exponent higher of 3 does not have a geometric shape in three dimensional space (Kvasz 290).


Algebra as we know it today was first introduced by the Arabs, specifically a guy named Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (Moses). Muhammad al-Khwarizimi is the one that actually came up with the name algebra. This name comes from the Arabic word jabr, which means “setting of a broken bone,” and al-jabr means “science of reunion and reduction” (Moses). I found it quite ironic that the word algebra actually has some meaning that has to do with pain, such as setting a broken bone back into place. That explains the pain most people feel while taking an algebra course.




Works Cited

Kvasz,Ladislav. "The History of Algebra and the Development of the Form of its Language." Philosophia Mathematica 14.3 (2006): 287-317. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 July 2010.

Moses, Barbara. "Algebra for a new century." Teaching Children Mathematics 3.6 (1997): 264+. Student Resource Center - College Edition Expanded. Web. 30 June 2010.

Stallings, Lynn. “A brief history of algebraic notation.” School Science and
Mathematics 100.5 (2000), 230-235.1 July 2010. ProQuest. Web.

Yuste, Piedad. "Algebra and Geometry in the Old Babylonian Period: Matters Concerning Reeds." Centaurus 47.4 (2005): 298-315. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 June 2010.

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