Omar Khayyam is one of the most extraordinary figures in Islamic science, and tales of his mathematical brilliance abound.
🎨Google Doodles celebrated Omar Khayyam’s 971st Birthday.
🎨Google Doodles celebrated Omar Khayyam’s 971st Birthday.
In 1079, Omar Khayyam calculated the length of the year to 365.24219858156 days. That means that he was out by less than the sixth decimal place– fractions of a second – from the figure we have today of 365.242190, derived with the aid of radio telescopes and atomic clocks.
In a highly theatrical demonstration involving candles🕯️ and globes🌍, he is said to have proved to an audience that included the Sufi theologian al‑Ghazali that the earth rotates on its axis.
c. 1100, the brilliant poet/mathematician Omar Khayyam found solutions to all thirteen possible kinds of cubic equations.
Omar Khayyam regretted that his solutions could only be worked out geometrically rather than algebraically. “We have tried to work these roots by algebra, but we have failed” , he says ruefully. “It may be, however, that men who come after us will succeed.”
