Chapter 11: Islamic Civilization "Where Algorithms Came From"

Introduction
Students have read that Baghdad was the location of the House of Wisdom, a government-supported research center specializing in the translation into Arabic of scientific texts in other languages. In this place, scholars from many different traditions shared their knowledge, performed scientific experiments, and made mathematical calculations. This gathering of intellectuals sparked many of the mathematical and scientific achievements of the Islamic world.

Lesson Description
Students will go to the Al-Khorezmi and the Dawn of Algebra Web site. They will then answer four questions about what they have read.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn more about the House of Wisdom.
2. Students will learn about the chief mathematician in the House of Wisdom and his contributions.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. He was the chief mathematician in the House of Wisdom, which was involved in the caliph's project to measure the size of Earth.
2. He was credited with helping to establish among the Arabs the Indian numbering system, which used decimal notation and the zero, and also with inventing algebra.
3. It has been suggested that when his book on the new system was published in Europe, his name was corrupted to algorism or algorithm, which today means "method of calculation."
4. Students' answers will vary but should include such points as the importance of allowing the free flow of intellectual thought, the possible practical applications of theory, and the usefulness of government subsidies to support research.

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