Friday, 2 October 2026 · Almaty

Remember the quadratic equation ax^{2}+bx+c=0?

Remember the quadratic equation ax^{2}+bx+c=0? Well, the ancient Babylonians and Greeks knew how to solve it, except that the Babylonians had no negative numbers, so for them it was not one quadratic equation but eight: they had to work through every possible combination of signs. And the method of completing the square they knew perfectly well.

The solution of cubic equations, however, was discovered by the Italians only at the beginning of the 16th century, and with that, by and large, modern mathematics began.

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