The algebra section of the Museum on the History of Arabic Sciences in Muscat

Abstract

The article describes how the algebra section of the Museum on the History of Arabic Sciences, shortly to be opened in Muscat, was conceived. Algebra is recounted by means of three touchscreens, each one devoted to a great Arab mathematician and algebraist. The first one is al-Khwārizmī, who founded the field, introduced the abstract notion of equation and provided an algorithm for first- and second-degree equations; the second one is al-Khayyām who, by intersecting two conics, solved all possible third-degree equation; we end with Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī, who in the twelfth century established, by using the notion of derivative, the cases in which a third-degree equation has positive roots. For each of these mathematicians, the visitor, by using the touchscreen, can choose the equation to see, start animations and modify the coefficients and consequently the corresponding curves. Short commentaries tell the historical development of these ideas.