The geometry of the unknown: Bombelli's algebra linearia
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Date
2010-10
Publication Type
Book Chapter
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Abstract
This paper studies the ways algebra and geometry are related in Bombelli's L'algebra. I show that despite Bombelli's careful adherence to a from of homogeneity, he constructs several different ways of relating between algebra and geometry, building on Greek, Arabic, abbacist and original approaches. I further show how Bombelli's technique of reading diagrams, especially when representing algebraic unknowns, requires a multiple view that makes lines stand for much more than the diagrams present to an untrained eye. This multiplicity reflects an exploratory approach that seeks to integrate the algebraic and geometric strata without reducing one to the other and without suppressing the idiosyncrasies of either stratum.
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published
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Book title
Philosophical Aspects of Symbolic Reasoning in Early Modern Mathematics
Journal / series
Volume
26
Pages / Article No.
229 - 269
Publisher
College Publications
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Edition / version
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Software
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Organisational unit
09591 - Wagner, Roy / Wagner, Roy
Notes
Philosophical Aspects of Symbolic Reasoning in Early modern Science and Mathematics (PASR) Conference, Gent, 2009