a friends filled me in on this info, apparently his professor passed on the info to him. In year 415 or so, tensions between a so called "Christian Mob" and rulers of Egypt grew. The Library of Alexandria (Egypt) was burnt down by the "Mob" and all text was lost, well not all, a half burnt book was found in the ruins, and that half burnt book is the vast Algebra we all use. can anyone confirm this info
algebra wasn't 'founded' as such ... it evolved .. and people from different times and places made their contributions .. starting from brahmagupta, aryabhata, khuwarzimi, diophantus (not in order .. and these are the only names i know . .google for the rest) and many more .... however only khuwarzimi and diophantus share the title of 'father of algebra' .. one was persian and the other greek ... now i am sure what will come next .... *shakes head*
i am surprised you know the names of Brahmagupta and Aryabhatta. Brahmagupta had "magi" blood ie. he was, in part, iranian. the iranians and the greeks are genetically related like few other pairs of people are. also the iranians and north indians (indians who speak a language that derives from sanskrit) are genetically very related. heck, sanskrit and old persian (ie. avestan, are sister languages). khuwarzimi was most likely a zoarastrian. about al-geber-wal-muquablai (the guy who's name gave rise to the term algebra) i know little.
and i am surprised that you think that al-jabr wa'al-muqabla is a person ... (al-jabr wa'al-muqabla is the title of the book written by khuwarzimi which laid the basis of algebra) and also you might want to look for an article by toomer gerald on khuwarizimi .. + khuarizimi's full name + a little background reading on his algebra theory's preface (hint: religion) [EDIT] ofcourse i know brahmagupta!!! that guy was an innovative genius!!!
Wasn't the concept of 0 as a numeral invented in India? Surely that is one of the most important foundation of any math. @O.P: But why do you want to know? There are many unconfirmed stories as to what started where.
^ indeed the "numeral" '0' was invented in india ... however the concept of the number '0' goes back as far as the babylonians .. but like greeks, babylonians werent sure of what they are dealing with .. it were indians that actually developed the concept and invented the digit.
^^ Hence the words Everyone knew what nothing was, just didn't know how they'd represent it, I guess.
lol .. even today we take zero as granted .. we never give it a second thought .. but think about it, how do you explain something that is nothing and holds nothing, which doesnt even exist, and to top that, how to justify the usefulness of such entity!! .. no wonder greeks and babylonians were stupified
