Symbolic algebra with letters
Álgebra simbólica con letras para incógnitas y parámetros
- Date
- 1591 · confidence high
- Place
- Tours and Paris, France
- Credited to
- François Viète (In artem analyticem isagoge)
- People
- 👤 François Viète1540–1603
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
The systematic use of letters to represent both unknowns (vowels) and known quantities (consonants), allowing general formulas to be written and manipulated instead of numerical cases. This is the birth of symbolic algebra.
Stevin (1585) introduced decimal fractions to Europe at almost the same time (De Thiende).
What it led to
- Descartes's notation
- analytic geometry
- symbolic calculus
Built on
- Early algebra (Diophantus' Arithmetica)c. 250 CE
- Algebra and algorithm (al-Khwarizmi)c. 820
- Diophantus's syncopated algebra
- Arabic and Italian algebra