Personal BiographyFranois Vite Latin Franciscus Vieta
Personal Biography
François Viète (Latin: Franciscus Vieta; 1540 – 23 February 1603), Seigneur de la Bigotière, was a French mathematician whose work on new algebra was an important step towards modern algebra, due to its innovative use of letters as parameters in equations. He was a lawyer by trade, and served as a privy councillor to both Henry III and Henry IV.
Contribution to Mathematics in Detai:
His first published work, the Canon mathematicus [Canon, 1579] has trigonometric tables computed to 9 decimal places, and contains a systematic collection of trigonometric formulas. Because of many misprints and a misunderstanding with the editor, this volume was not included in his collected works.
Vieta's most significant contributions were in algebra. While letters had been used to describe an unknown quantity by earlier writers, Vieta was the first to also use letters for the parameters or constant coefficients in an equation. Thus, while Cardano solved particular cubic equations such as
Vieta could treat the general cubic equation
Where p and q are constants.
Vieta also discovered a formula for the roots of the quadratic equation.
For the mentioned quadratic equation (i.e that, which coefficient (in case x2 is in it) is equal to figure one) x2 + px + q = 0 root sum is equal to coefficient p which is drawn with the opposite sign and root’s product is equal to free term q: x1 + x2 = -p x1x2 = q
In case of unreduced quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0: x1 + x2 = -b / a x1x2 = c / a
Impact on Today’s world
Today when one thinks of algebra, one immediately thinks of equations and variables. The notation we use today allows us to write not only specific equations to solve, but also a general form for many equations. The development of the algebraic notation we use today started in the sixteenth century. One of the first mathematicians to have an impact on the development of this algebraic notation was Franois Viete. The contribution Viete made towards
François Viète (Latin: Franciscus Vieta; 1540 – 23 February 1603), Seigneur de la Bigotière, was a French mathematician whose work on new algebra was an important step towards modern algebra, due to its innovative use of letters as parameters in equations. He was a lawyer by trade, and served as a privy councillor to both Henry III and Henry IV.
Contribution to Mathematics in Detai:
His first published work, the Canon mathematicus [Canon, 1579] has trigonometric tables computed to 9 decimal places, and contains a systematic collection of trigonometric formulas. Because of many misprints and a misunderstanding with the editor, this volume was not included in his collected works.
Vieta's most significant contributions were in algebra. While letters had been used to describe an unknown quantity by earlier writers, Vieta was the first to also use letters for the parameters or constant coefficients in an equation. Thus, while Cardano solved particular cubic equations such as
Vieta could treat the general cubic equation
Where p and q are constants.
Vieta also discovered a formula for the roots of the quadratic equation.
For the mentioned quadratic equation (i.e that, which coefficient (in case x2 is in it) is equal to figure one) x2 + px + q = 0 root sum is equal to coefficient p which is drawn with the opposite sign and root’s product is equal to free term q: x1 + x2 = -p x1x2 = q
In case of unreduced quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0: x1 + x2 = -b / a x1x2 = c / a
Impact on Today’s world
Today when one thinks of algebra, one immediately thinks of equations and variables. The notation we use today allows us to write not only specific equations to solve, but also a general form for many equations. The development of the algebraic notation we use today started in the sixteenth century. One of the first mathematicians to have an impact on the development of this algebraic notation was Franois Viete. The contribution Viete made towards