"Anticipations of Cardan are more truly wonderful when we consider that the symbolical language of algebra, that powerful instrument not only expediting the processes of thought, but in suggesting general truths to the mind, was nearly unknown in his age. Diophantus, Fra Luca, and Cardan make use occasionally of letters to express indefinite quantities besides the res or cosa, sometimes written shortly, for the assumed unknown number of an equation. But letters were not yet substituted for known quantities. Michael Stifel, in his Arithmetics Integra, Nuremberg, 1544, is said to have first used the signs + and -, and numeral exponents of powers. It is very singular that discoveries of the greatest convenience, and apparently, not above the ingenuity of a village schoolmaster, should have been overlooked by men of extraordinary acuteness like Tartaglia, Cardan, and Ferrari; and hardly less so, that by dint of this acuteness they dispensed with the aid of these contrivances, in which we suppose that so much of the utility of algebraic expression consists."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerolamo_Cardano
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gerolamo Cardano
1501 – 1576
italienischer Arzt und Mathematiker
43 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gerolamo Cardano →
Related Quotes
"I have accustomed my features always to assume an expression quite contrary to my feelings; thus I am able to feign o…"
"The greatest advantage in gambling lies in not playing at all."
"Better it is to have the worst, than none at all. for example we see, that houses are nedefull, such as can not posse…"
"And wel we see ther is none alive that in every respect may be accompted happie, yea though mortall men were free fro…"
"So shall we voyd of all craft and sail, with true reason declare how much each man erreth in life, judgement, opinion…"
"Among other myseries what I pray you tá be greater than whē a man riseth frō bed in the morning, to be incertaine of …"
"From these beginnings, as it were, have issued bitterness, contentious obstinancy, lack of amenity, hasty judgement, …"
"I am cold of heart, warm of brain, and given to never-ending meditation; I ponder over ideas, many and weighty, and e…"
"I am able to admit two distinct trains of thought to my mind at the same time."
"My personal affairs are not as highly esteemed as men commonly value their own interests—vain, empty affairs like tho…"