Li Ye's tian yuan algebra
Álgebra tian yuan de Li Ye
- Date
- 1248 · confidence high
- Place
- Yuanshi, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
- Credited to
- Li Ye (Ceyuan haijing)
- People
- 👤 Li Ye1192–1279
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The 'celestial unknown' method: polynomial equations with one unknown are set out by writing the coefficients in a column using positional counting-rod notation, including negative numbers. It is a complete positional symbolic algebra.
What it led to
- systematic formulation of high-degree equations
- Zhu Shijie's algebra of several unknowns