Viete

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(1591). He demonstrated the value of symbols by using plus + and minus - signs for operations, and letters to represent unknowns. He suggested using letters as symbols for quantities, both known and unknown. He used vowels for the unknowns and consonants for known quantities. The convention where letters near the beginning of the alphabet represent known quantities while letters near the end represent unknown quantities was introduced later by Descartes in La Gčometrie . This convention is used today, often without people realising that a convention is being used at all. (If asked to solve ax = b nobody asks which quantity do I solve for?.)

Vičte made many improvements in the theory of equations. He presented methods for solving equations of second, third and fourth degree. He knew the connection between the positive roots of equations and the coefficients of the different powers of the unknown quantity.

He also wrote books on trigonometry and geometry such as Supplementum ...

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