What is Diophantus?
'''Diophantus of Alexandria''' was an [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[mathematician]]. He is well known for his series of books called ''[[Arithmetica]]''. He mainly focused on solving [[algebraic equation]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/courses/436/436-s00/Papers2000/kirschm.html |title=Alexandrian Algebra according to Diophantus |website=sites.math.rutgers.edu |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209190505/https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/courses/436/436-s00/Papers2000/kirschm.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> His work was built upon by [[Pierre de Fermat]], a [[French people|French]] mathematician, who claimed that a certain equation created by Diophantus was unsolvable. The attempts to prove this claim, now known as [[Fermat's Last Theorem]], led to major advances in [[number theory]]. == Biography == Not much is known of Diophantus's life. Some information is given by another [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] mathematician, [[Metroduros]], through various problems that he wrote which supposedly contained hints about Diophantus' life. == ''Arithmetica'' == Diophantus' main notable work is his series of books called ''[[Arithmetica]].'' It is a collection of problems and solutions to those problems. These problems have come to be known as [[Diophantine equation]]s. The method in which they are solved is now called [[Diophantine analysis]]. ==References== <references /> [[Category:Ancient mathematicians]] [[Category:Ancient Greeks]] {{biography-stub}}