# Algebra

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The quadratic formula expresses the solution of the degree two equation ${\displaystyle ax^{2}+bx+c=0}$ in terms of its coefficients ${\displaystyle a,b,c}$, where ${\displaystyle a}$ is not zero.

Algebra is one of the broad parts of mathematics, together with number theory, geometry and analysis.

## Quotes

• Algebra is the offer made by the devil to the mathematician. The devil says: `I will give you this powerful machine, it will answer any question you like. All you need to do is give me your soul: give up geometry and you will have this marvellous machine.'
• The historical associations of the word algebra almost substantiate the sordid character of the subject. The word comes from the title of a book written by... Al Khowarizmi. In this title, al-jebr w' almuqabala, the word al-jebr meant transposing a quantity from one side of an equation to another and muqabala meant simplification of the resulting expressions. Figuratively, al-jebr meant restoring the balance of an equation... When the Moors reached Spain... algebrista... came to mean a bonesetter... and signs reading Algebrista y Sangrador (bonesetter and bloodletter) were found over Spanish barber shops. Thus it might be said that there is a good historical basis for the fact that the word algebra stirs up disagreeable thoughts.
• Morris Kline, Mathematics and the Physical World (1959), p. 69
• [T]he sciences that are expressed by numbers or by other small signs, are easily learned; and... this facility rather than its demonstrability is what has made the fortune of algebra.