DIOPHANTUS

                Diophantus was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician, born somewhere between 200 and 214 BC. Alexandria was the center of Greek culture and knowledge and Diophantus belonged to the ‘Silver Age’ of Alexandria. His life story is not known in detail however we do have some dates acquired from a mathematical puzzle known as ‘Diophantus’s Riddle’. 

Contribution to Mathematics

           ‘Arithmetika’ a major work of Diophantus, is considered to be the most noticeable and influential work done on algebra in Greek history. His style was very different; he never used general methods in working out a problem. A method used for one problem could not be used to solve even another very similar problem. Diophantus wrote many books but unfortunately only a few lasted. He did a lot of work in algebra, solving equations in terms of integers. Some of his equations resulted in more than one answer possibility. There are now called ‘Diophantine’ or ‘Indeterminate’. It was none other than Diophantus who started the use of a symbol to specify the unidentified quantities in his equations. His style of algebra is known as the ‘syncopated’ style of algebraic writing, in which he represented polynomials as one unknown.