Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Founder of algebra
9th-century Persian polymath at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
The original algorithm guy — literally: 'algorithm' is a Latinized warping of his name, and 'algebra' comes from al-jabr, one of his techniques. Working at Baghdad's House of Wisdom, he introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals (the 0-9 we use today) to the Islamic world, and from there to medieval Europe.
Famous for
- Founded algebra (al-jabr)
- Introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to the West
- Word 'algorithm' derives from his name
- Updated Ptolemy's geography and star tables
In Rubicon
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi is one of the historical characters you can play as in Rubicon, a trivia game where you answer in your own words and an AI judge reads what you meant. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi is filed under Natural Sciences, and is strongest at Natural Sciences and Technology & Engineering.
Others in Natural Sciences
- Isaac Newton — Laws of motion + calculus
- Marie Curie — Pioneered radioactivity
- Pythagoras — The Pythagorean theorem
- Euclid — Father of geometry
- Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) — Optics + the scientific method
- Hypatia of Alexandria — Alexandria's last great scholar