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Algebra

Frae Wikipedia, the free beuk o knawledge

Algebra is ane o the maist basic brainches o mathematics. Tho it isna aesie defined, it is chairacterised bi the uiss o seembols tae represent some operations, an o letters tae represent nummers or ither elements.

Clessification

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Algebra can be spleet up intae thir fields:

History

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Algebra, like coontin an geometry, is ane o the auldest brainches o mathematics. The name comes frae a beuk bi the Arabian mathemateecian Al-Khwarizmi cried Kitab al-jabr wa al-muqabalah ("The beuk o summary anent calculatin bi transposeition an reduction").

Algebra wis cleckit for tae help solve equations. The solutions o linear an quadratic equations wis aareadies kent lang syne. In the 16t century Italian mathemateecians fund solutions tae cubic an quartic equations. In 1799 Gauss shawed that “ilka algebraic equation o degree n, haes n ruits (solutions), rael or imaginar”.

At the stairt o the 19t century Niels Abel an Evariste Galois pruived that the solutions o equations o degree bigger nor 4 canna be expressed uisin coeffeicients o the equation an algebraic operations juist—that is, the'r nae generalisation o the quadratic, cubic or quartic formulae tae heicher degrees.

See forby

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