Omar jayam

The Persian mathematician and astronomer found the solution to third degree equations and their roots through their geometric expression. He dedicated his life to the study of irrational numbers and developed content in algebra .

Born in Nishapur (ancient city of Khorasan, present-day Iran) in 1048, Omar received a good education in science and philosophy. Thanks to support, he managed to develop his thesis on demonstrations of algebra and comparison,  with which he achieved great prestige. In addition to being a mathematician, he was a great astronomer, a facet through which he made corrections to the ancient Zoroastrian calendar .

On the other hand, he is also a recognized poet of oriental literature , of which his work Rubaiyat can be highlighted .

It is said that we owe to Khayam the fact that the unknown in the equations is called “x.” He called the unknown shay , which means “thing,” “something” in Arabic. The term was adopted in Castilian as “xay” and later it was finished using only the initial letter of the word, the x. Have you ever wondered why we use this letter? The story is amazing! We are already getting curious to know where the use of the letter “y” as a second unknown comes from. It may be simply because it is the letter that follows the x in the alphabet …

Finally, Omar Jayam died in 1131 in the same place where he was born, in Nishapur.

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