442: algebra Feb 23, 2016

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Algebra: complicating and seemingly never-ending, not so different from its etymology. The word is from late Middle English via Italian, via Spanish, via medieval Latin, from the Arabic 'al-jabr' meaning ‘the reunion of broken parts,’ as in ‘bone setting’. The original sense was ‘the surgical treatment of fractures’. The mathematical sense comes from the title of a book, " ʿilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala" which means ‘the science of restoring what is missing and equating like with like,’ written by al-Ḵwārizmī. In summation, broken limbs are not so distinct from math.

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