Skip to content

The law which asserts that the equation X = 0, complete or incomplete, can have no more real positive roots than it has changes of sign, and no more real negative roots than it has permanences of sign, was apparently known to Cardan; but a satisfactory statement is possibly due to Harriot (died 1621) and certainly to Descartes.

— David Eugene Smith History of Mathematics (1925)

Another quote →

More quotes by David Eugene Smith

He used capital vowels for the unknown quantities and capital consonants for the known, thus being able to express several unknowns and several knowns.

History of Mathematics (1925)

With the coming of the Jesuits in the 16th century, and the consequent introduction of Western science, China lost interest in her native algebra...

History of Mathematics (1925)

He... gave thirteen forms of the cubic which have positive roots, these having already been given by Omar Kayyam.

History of Mathematics (1925)

He states that the root of x^3 + 6x = 20 isx = \sqrt[3]{\sqrt{108} + 10} - \sqrt[3]{\sqrt{108} - 10}.

History of Mathematics (1925)

The excellent work of Tropfke is an example of the tendency to break away from the mere chronological recital of facts.

History of Mathematics (1923)

All David Eugene Smith quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Eugene Smith (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.