Ferro
Scipione dal Ferro
Born: 6 Feb 1465
in Bologna, Italy
Died: 5 Nov 1526
in Bologna, Italy
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Scipione dal Ferro lectured at Bologna where he was a colleague of Pacioli. Dal Ferro is the first to solve the cubic equation by radicals. He only solved one of the two cases (the fact that 0 and negative numbers were not in use made many distinct cases). He kept his discovery secret and only told his student Fior shortly before his death. Ferrari reports seeing a notebook in del Ferro's handwriting where the solution is clearly written down.
References (2 books/articles)
References elsewhere in this archive:
Tell me about del Ferro's solution of cubic equations
JOC/EFR December 1996