One of the famous mathematical works in ancient times.
French mathematician Vedachuang
/kloc-in the 6th century, with the appearance of various mathematical symbols, especially after the French mathematician Veda created systematic symbols representing unknown quantities and known quantities, the special concept of "unknown quantity equation" appeared. At that time, Latin was called "aequatio" and English was called "Equality".
/kloc-Around the 7th century, European algebra was first introduced to China. At that time, "Equation" was translated into "Equation". At that time, the influence of ancient China culture was still strong, and modern western science and culture could not be widely spread in China in time and had a great influence. Therefore, only a few people study and study the disciplines or concepts of algebra and equation.
/kloc-In the middle of 0/9th century, western modern mathematics was introduced to China again. 1859, Li and English missionaries made Li Wei and Li Wei, British mathematicians, attach great importance to the correct translation of mathematical terms. They borrowed or created nearly 400 Chinese translations of mathematical terms, many of which are still in use today. The translation of "Equation" borrowed the word "Equation" from ancient China. Thus, the word "equation" has the meaning of "equation with unknown number" for the first time.
1873, Hua, another disseminator of western science in early modern China, co-translated Wallis' Algebra; They translated "equation" into "equation", which means to distinguish "equation" from "equation". Equation still means that Washington's ideas have been widely adopted for a long time. Until 1934, chinese mathematical society made a review of nouns and determined that "equation" and "equation" had the same meaning. Broadly speaking, they refer to the equation of degree n in one variable and the equation established by several equations. In a narrow sense, they refer to the equation of unary n.
Now the exact definition of the equation we are talking about refers to the equation with unknown numbers. However, in the early mathematical monograph "Nine Chapters Arithmetic" in China, the word "equation" means simultaneous linear equations with many unknowns, which are now called linear equations.
There is a topic in "Nine Chapters Arithmetic", which is translated into modern language: now there are 3 bundles of first-class millet, 2 bundles of medium millet, and 34 bundles of low millet 1 bundle. In addition, there are 1 bundles of excellent millet, 2 bundles of medium millet and 3 bundles of inferior millet, producing a total of 26 buckets of millet. Please answer, 1 The number of barrels of upper, middle and lower millet is x, y, z y, z, and the equation is listed according to the meaning of the question:
3x+2y+z=39( 1)
2x+3y+z=34(2)
x+2y+3z=26(3)
However, in "Nine Chapters Arithmetic", instead of listing the above equations, draw an equation and calculate the answer through the equation.
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, when Liu, a great mathematician, was commenting on Nine Chapters of Arithmetic, he defined this "equation" as follows: "There are different numbers for courses, classes and things. In short, it makes every behavior rate. Two things go further, three things and three roads are all like the number of things, and they are juxtaposed on the line, so it is called the equation. " It should be noted that the so-called "course" here is not the course we are talking about today, but a formula listed according to the quantitative relationship of different items. "Real number" is a constant term in the formula. "Today's rate per behavior" consists of a condition in a row, which represents an unknown quantity. "Things are like a series of events", that is, if there are several unknowns, several equations must be listed. Because unknown coefficients and constant terms are expressed by equations, and several lines are juxtaposed into a square, they are called "equations", which is the simultaneous linear equations in algebra now.
Chapter 9 of Arithmetic also lists the general method of understanding simultaneous linear equations-"equation skills". At that time, it was also called "direct division", which was basically consistent with the addition, subtraction and elimination methods that can be used in algebra now, and it was also the earliest in the world. This method did not appear in India until the 7th century. In Europe, in 1559, the Swiss mathematician Biao Qicai began to express different unknowns with different letters, and put forward the incomplete solution of the ternary linear equations, because they had not achieved negative numbers at that time, which was more than 500 years later than the arithmetic in Chapter 9/kloc-0.