Saturday, May 5, 2012

Richard Sault's New Treatise of Algebra

A New Treatise of Algebra by Richard Sault (d. 1702).  Not much is known about Sault, except that he ran a mathematical school in London in the 1690s near the Royal Exchange and was an editor of and contributor to the Athenian Mercury, a literary journal that was published between 1690 and 1697.  TheTreatise of Algebra was published as an appendix to William Leybourne's Pleasure with Profit, and included a chapter by Joseph Raphson on converging series.


This image is page 19. Notice that Sault describes in some detail, with an example, how to convert a word problem into algebraic notation. Note that he generalizes his problem by using arbitrary constants, instead of just the given numbers.



1 comment:

  1. Brilliant find. Note the order.

    Method.

    Example.

    Exercise.

    All textbooks should follow this pattern.

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