Visit NAP.edu/10766 to get more information about this book, to buy it in print, or to download it as a free PDF. §I.1 THIS BOOK IS A HISTORY OF ALGEBRA, written for the curious nonmathematician. It ...
§3.1 THE WORD “ALGEBRA,” as everyone knows, comes from the Arabic language. This has always seemed to me somewhat unfair, for reasons I shall get to shortly. Unfair or not, it requires some ...