Al-Khwarizmi is the great mathematician, astronomer, geographer and the founder of classical algebra. Although the life of Al-Khwarizmi is little known, he left us his works that cover different areas of knowledge: mathematics, astronomy, geography.
Works of Al-Khwarizmi in mathematics are the most know. Two treatises such "The Book about the Indian account" and "Calculation by restoration and reduction" were translated into Latin and served for a long time the basic textbooks on mathematics. The arithmetic treatise of Al-Khwarizmi had an enormous influence on the development of science in the East and then in Europe. This work became the model on which wrote textbooks on arithmetic Eastern scientists. Because of the treatise of Arabic mathematics Europe met with a decimal and digits, replacing the literal expense of the Greeks, cumbersome Roman numbering and complex Chinese ideographs.
Al-Khwarizmi was familiar with the system of accounts of the Hindus and recorded them in his book on arithmetic. He explained in detail the principle of writing numbers using nine characters, digits from 1 to 9. The scientist introduces the scientific concept of digits: units, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. Al-Khwarizmi paid special attention to the way of writing numbers in this system with special sign — zero to indicate an empty category. There are rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in the same treatise are. Nowadays the knowledge of his works is well known by every schoolchild.
It is worth noting that the name of the scientist led to the emergence of the word "algorithm" which first meant the decimal counting system. Subsequently, the term acquired a broader meaning and has come to mean the order of operations. One of his most significant works have given rise to a new science — algebra ("al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala"). The book is devoted to the solution of linear and quadratic equations. In this treatise, the scientist relied on the achievements of Greek mathematicians. But if the Greeks solved the equations geometrically, that al-Khwarizmi found the algebraic method. Besides, he pointed out the practical application contained in the treatise of knowledge. In the final part of the book he wrote: "I have compiled a short book on calculus of algebra and w’al-muqabala, encompassing both simple and complex questions in arithmetic, for it is necessary for people in the division of the inheritance, drafting of wills, division of property and judicial affairs, in commerce and various trades, as well as in the measurement of land, the carrying out of canals, geometry and other varieties of similar cases." (Brezina, 2006)
References
Brezina, C. (2006). Al-Khwarizmi. New York: Rosen Pub. Group.
