The form most mathematics students use today is: To solve a quadratic equation the Babylonians essentially used the standard formula, with the a term being included in the x2 variable. ... In about 300 BC Euclid developed a geometrical approach which, although later mathematicians used it to solve quadratic equations, amounted to finding a length which in our notation was the root of a quadratic equation. ... Most notably, Brahmagupta, who lived from 598 - 665 BC, developed the first system of numbers that used zero. ... The treatise develops a system for the solutions of quadratic expres...

• Word Count: 1938
• Approx Pages: 8

In 1855, Dirichlet succeeded Gauss in his position at GÖttingen, and Dedekind attended Dirichlet's lectures on the theory of numbers, potential theory, definite integrals, and partial differential equations. ... Leibniz's students, the Swiss Bernoulli brothers, used calculus to solve this and other problems, such as finding the curve of quickest descent connecting two given points in a vertical plane. ... To Dedekind, a complete, continuous system is one in which "every cut in the system is produced by exactly one element of the system, which is either the maximum of the lower ...

• Word Count: 2467
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate