Al-Khwarizmi: the father of algebra
📖 In short
More than 1100 years ago, in the “House of Wisdom” in Baghdad, there lived a scholar called Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. He wrote a book inventing a new science called “algebra”, and spread the Indian numerals along with zero. The word “algorithm”, which programmers use today, comes from his name!
🤩 Did you know?
- Al-Khwarizmi was born around 780 and died around 850.
- In European languages, the word “algebra” comes from “al-jabr”, and the word “algorithm” comes from “al-Khwarizmi”.
- Al-Khwarizmi also drew a map of the world and wrote about astronomy and geography.
- There's a crater on the Moon named after al-Khwarizmi.
🔎 Find out more
🌟 From Khwarazm to Baghdad
Al-Khwarizmi was born around 780 in the region of Khwarazm in Central Asia, then worked at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, a great library and center of learning where the caliph al-Ma'mun gathered scholars and translators.
🔍 The book of algebra
Al-Khwarizmi wrote “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”, explaining how to find the unknown number in a problem. His aim was practical: dividing inheritances, trading and measuring land.
💡 Numerals and zero
In another book al-Khwarizmi explained calculating with Indian numerals and zero. The book was translated into Latin, and Europeans learned from it the numerals we use today.
🎯 Algorithm
Europeans wrote his name “Algoritmi”, so the word “algorithm” came to mean ordered steps for solving a problem. Every program on your computer or phone is an algorithm!
🧮 Worked examples
- x + 10 = 25 ⇒ x = 15A problem solved the algebra way: balance both sides.
- The addition algorithmAdd the ones, carry the ten, add the tens: steps in order.
📚 Key words
- Algebra
- The science of finding unknown numbers in problems
- Algorithm
- Ordered steps for solving a problem
- The House of Wisdom
- A great library and center of learning in Baghdad in the time of the Abbasid caliphs
🧪 Try it at home
Write an “algorithm” for something you like doing, like making a glass of chocolate milk: step 1, step 2… Then ask your brother or sister to follow it exactly. Did you forget a step?
🧩 Test yourself
1 In which city did al-Khwarizmi work?
2 Which science is al-Khwarizmi known for?
3 Al-Khwarizmi's name gave us the word…