Diophantos - Diophantos (English spelling)

Date of birth and death unknown. Greek mathematician in the late 3rd century. Known as the "father of algebra," he was active mainly in Alexandria. The following poem about his life is included in the "Poetic Poems": "Diophantus spent one-sixth of his life as a boy, his beard grew one-twelfth of his life, and he married one-seventh of his life. Five years after his marriage, he had a son. The son lived one-half the life of his father, and the father died four years after the son." If his age is x, then x=1/6x+1/12x+1/7x+5+1/2x+4, which gives a lifespan of 84 years. Six of the thirteen volumes of his main work, " Arithmetika ," remain, and it deals mainly with problems and solutions of definite and indeterminate equations from the first to third degrees, and the ingenuity with which he finds clues to the calculations and solutions is astonishing. He also considered symbols such as negative, unknown, equal, and powers, and had a major influence on subsequent algebra.

[Hirata Hiroshi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

生没年不詳。3世紀後半のギリシアの数学者。「代数学の父」といわれ、主としてアレクサンドリアで活躍した。その生涯については、『ギリシア詩華集』に次のような詩が載っている。「ディオファントスは一生の6分の1を少年時代として過ごし、ひげは一生の12分の1より後に伸び、さらに7分の1過ぎて結婚した。結婚後5年して息子が生まれた。息子は父の2分の1生き、父は息子の4年後に死んだ」。彼の年齢をxとすれば、x=1/6x+1/12x+1/7x+5+1/2x+4となって、その一生は84年となる。主著『算数論』Arithmetikaは13巻中6巻が現存し、そこでは主として一次から三次までの定方程式と不定方程式の問題と解法を扱っているが、その計算法や解法の手掛りをつかむ巧妙さは驚くばかりである。また、マイナス、未知数、相等しい、累乗などの記号についても考察、その後の代数学に大きな影響を与えた。

［平田　寛］

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