Christoph Rudolff
Christoff Rudolff (born 1499 in Jawor, Silesia, died 1545 in Vienna) was the author of the first German textbook on algebra.
Rudolff was from 1517 to 1521 a student of Henricus Grammateus (Schreyber from Erfurt) at the University of Vienna and was the author of a book computing, under the title: Behend und hübsch Rechnung durch die kunstreichen regeln Algebre.
He introduced the radical symbol (√) for the square root. It is believed that this was because it resembled a lowercase "r" (for "radix"),[1][2] though there is no direct evidence.[3] Cajori only says that a "dot is the embryo of our present symbol for the square root"[4] though it is "possible, perhaps probable" that Rudolff's later symbols are not dots but 'r's.[5]
Furthermore, he used the meaningful definition that x0 = 1.
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Notes[edit]
- ^ a b Walter William Rouse Ball (1960), A short account of the history of mathematics (4 ed.), Courier Dover Publications, p. 215, ISBN 978-0-486-20630-1
- ^ a b Howard Whitley Eves (1983), Great moments in mathematics (before 1650: Volume 1), MAA, p. 131, ISBN 978-0-88385-310-8
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b Florian Cajori (1919), A history of mathematics (2 ed.), The Macmillan Company, p. 140
- ^ a b Florian Cajori (1993 (reprint)), A history of mathematical notations, Volumes 1-2, Courier Dover Publications, p. 369, ISBN 978-0-486-67766-8
References[edit]
- Wolfgang Kaunzner; Karl Röttel, Christoff Rudolff (2006). Christoff Rudolff aus Jauer in Schlesien: zum 500. Geburtstag eines bedeutenden Cossisten und Arithmetikers, der aus diesem seinerzeit hoheitlich zur Krone von Böhmen gehörenden Landesteil stammt. ISBN 978-3-928671-39-2.
- Moritz Cantor (1889), "Rudolff: Christoff R.", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German) 29, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 571–572
- Wolfgang Kaunzner (2005) (in German). "Rudolff, Christoff ". In Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). 22. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 198.
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