Perfect for history buffs and armchair algebra experts unknown quantity tells the story of the development of abstract mathematical thought john derbyshire discovers the story behind the formulae roots and radicals as he did so masterfully in prime obsession derbyshire brings the evolution of mathematical thinking to dramatic life by focusing on the key historical players. Written for those among us who are unencumbered by a fear of formulae unknown quantity delivers on its promise to present a history of algebra astonishing in its bold presentation of the math and graced with narrative authority our journey through the world of algebra is at once intellectually satisfying and pleasantly challenging. However the scope of unknown quantity is much larger because algebra is a vast subject with a long history dating back to the babylonians whose coherence is hard to see especially for nonmathematicians like prime obsession unknown quantity contains large sections that describe the mathematics. Perfect for history buffs and armchair algebra experts unknown quantity tells the story of the development of abstract mathematical thought john derbyshire discovers the story behind the formulae roots and radicals. Unknown quantity a real and imaginary history of algebra item preview remove circle share or embed this item embed embed for wordpresscom hosted blogs and archiveorg item description tags want more advanced embedding details examples and help no favorite share flag flag this item for graphic violence graphic sexual content texts unknown quantity a real and imaginary