Who was Al-Khwarizmi? What did he do?
1 Answer
Al-Khwarizmi was a Muslim scholar who was very influential in mathematics, particularly Algebra.
Explanation:
Al-Khwarizmi worked in the "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad where he and others translated old scientific and philosophic documents, specifically Greek, into Arabic. His work on elementary Algebra was translated into Latin in the 12th century, which actually gave Algebra its name.
He published a second work introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to the Western world, which introduced the word Algorithm to the world.
A third book he wrote improved upon the accuracy of certain Arabic cities and correctly measured the length of the Meditteranean Sea. He also participated in a project to measure the circumference of the Earth.
Lastly, he created an astronomical table based on various Hindu and Greek sources, which were later translated into Latin.
