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Diophantus of Alexandria (; born probably sometime between AD 201 and 215; died aged 84, probably sometime between AD 285 and 299), sometimes called "the father of algebra", was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician〔Victor J. Katz (1998). ''A History of Mathematics: An Introduction'', p. 184. Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-321-01618-1. 〕 and the author of a series of books called ''Arithmetica'', many of which are now lost. These texts deal with solving algebraic equations. While reading Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac's edition of Diophantus' ''Arithmetica,'' Pierre de Fermat concluded that a certain equation considered by Diophantus had no solutions, and noted in the margin without elaboration that he had found "a truly marvelous proof of this proposition," now referred to as Fermat's Last Theorem. This led to tremendous advances in number theory, and the study of Diophantine equations ("Diophantine geometry") and of Diophantine approximations remain important areas of mathematical research. Diophantus coined the term παρισὀτης (parisotes) to refer to an approximate equality. This term was rendered as ''adaequalitat'' in Latin, and became the technique of adequality developed by Pierre de Fermat to find maxima for functions and tangent lines to curves. Diophantus was the first Greek mathematician who recognized fractions as numbers; thus he allowed positive rational numbers for the coefficients and solutions. In modern use, Diophantine equations are usually algebraic equations with integer coefficients, for which integer solutions are sought. Diophantus also made advances in mathematical notation. ==Biography== Little is known about the life of Diophantus. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, probably from between AD 200 and 214 to 284 or 298. Much of our knowledge of the life of Diophantus is derived from a 5th-century Greek anthology of number games and puzzles created by Metrodorus. One of the problems (sometimes called his epitaph) states: :'Here lies Diophantus,' the wonder behold. :Through art algebraic, the stone tells how old: :'God gave him his boyhood one-sixth of his life, :One twelfth more as youth while whiskers grew rife; :And then yet one-seventh ere marriage begun; :In five years there came a bouncing new son. :Alas, the dear child of master and sage :After attaining half the measure of his father's life chill fate took him. After consoling his fate by the science of numbers for four years, he ended his life.' This puzzle implies that Diophantus' age can be expressed as : which gives a value of 84 years. However, the accuracy of the information cannot be independently confirmed. In popular culture, this puzzle was the Puzzle No.142 in ''Professor Layton and Pandora's Box'' as one of the hardest solving puzzles in the game, which needed to be unlocked by solving other puzzles first. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Diophantus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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