algebra

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
Emergence of formal equations
- Problem solving in Egypt and Babylon
- Greece and the limits of geometric expression
  - The Pythagoreans and Euclid
  - Diophantus
- The equation in India and China
- Islamic contributions
- Commerce and abacists in the European Renaissance
- Cardano and the solving of cubic and quartic equations
- Viète and the formal equation
- The concept of numbers
Classical algebra
- Analytic geometry
- The fundamental theorem of algebra
- Impasse with radical methods
- Galois theory
  - Galois’s work on permutations
  - Acceptance of Galois theory
- Applications of group theory
  - Geometry
  - Number theory
- Fundamental concepts of modern algebra
  - Prime factorization
  - Fields
  - Ideals
- Systems of equations
  - Determinants
  - Matrices
- Quaternions and vectors
- The close of the classical age
Structural algebra
- Precursors to the structural approach
  - Hilbert and Steinitz
  - Noether and Artin
- The structural approach dominates
- Algebraic superstructures
  - Bourbaki
  - Category theory
- New challenges and perspectives

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

mathematicians of the Greco-Roman world

mathematicians of the Islamic world

The French mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650) demonstrated that the square root of any line segment could be constructed by the simple, but ingenious, addition of a line segment with unit length.

Figure 5: Diagrams of lattices and one non-lattice (see text).

Figure 6: The partition lattice π4 (see text).

Figure 7: Lattices with special properties (see text).

cube symmetries

regular octahedron

For Students

algebra summary

Discover

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Alice in Wonderland)

11 Banned Books Through Time

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.

10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci

Diverse elementary school children wearing school uniforms running outside of school. Boys girls

Pro and Con: School Uniforms

Title: Senate Square, St. Petersburg, December 14, 1825: repression of the troop mutiny - watercolor by Carl Ivanovitch Kollman, 1825 depicts Decembrist uprising clashing with cavalry, with spectators watching. (new style December 26, 1825) Europe. Saint

8 of the Largest Empires in History

Thumbnail for flags that look alike quiz Russia, Slovenia, Iceland, Norway

Flags That Look Alike

Thanksgiving Celebration Traditional Dinner Setting Food Concept

Why Is Thanksgiving in the U.S. Celebrated on a Thursday?

algebra: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos

mathematicians of the Greco-Roman world

mathematicians of the Islamic world

The French mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650) demonstrated that the square root of any line segment could be constructed by the simple, but ingenious, addition of a line segment with unit length.

Figure 5: Diagrams of lattices and one non-lattice (see text).

Figure 6: The partition lattice π4 (see text).

Figure 7: Lattices with special properties (see text).

cube symmetries

regular octahedron

See All Images →

Topics

elementary algebra modern algebra linear algebra rational root theorem binomial theorem Descartes’s rule of signs group theory linear transformation multinomial theorem fundamental theorem of algebra analysis probability theory cryptology computer science combinatorics statistics geometry automata theory set theory information theory

Key People

John von Neumann

John von Neumann

American mathematician

Sir William Rowan Hamilton

Irish mathematician and astronomer

Diophantus

Greek mathematician

Emmy Noether

Emmy Noether

German mathematician

Thomas Harriot

English mathematician and astronomer

Aryabhata I

Aryabhata

Indian astronomer and mathematician

Bhāskara II

Indian mathematician

James Joseph Sylvester

English mathematician

Al-Khwārizmī

al-Khwārizmī

Muslim mathematician

Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, 2004.

Sir Michael Francis Atiyah

British mathematician

James H. Wilkinson

English mathematician

Zhu Shijie

Chinese mathematician

al-Karajī

Persian mathematician and engineer

Saunders Mac Lane

American mathematician

Andrei Okounkov

Russian mathematician

Pontryagin, Lev Semyonovich

Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin

Russian mathematician

Hermite

Charles Hermite

French mathematician

Richard Dagobert Brauer

American mathematician

Gerd Faltings

Gerd Faltings

German mathematician

Henri Cartan

French mathematician

Quiz

Equations written on blackboard

Numbers and Mathematics

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Define It: Math Terms