Talk:Diophantus
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Incorrect Algorithm
editThe page says:
The answer is determined from two methods: 1. Finding the common multiple of 12, 6, and 7 (which is 84). 2. Taking 14 (the age up to which would be considered a boy; one-sixth of his life) multiplied by 6, which equals 84.
The first method doesn't seem to make sense. It doesn't include, for instance, the information that he died four years before his son, which affects the answer.
The second method relies on knowledge that 14 is an important age in Hellenistic cultures, which isn't necessary.
The reference correctly shows how this problem is solved.
Reverted to more accepted statement
editThe documentary sources cited in this article refer to Diophantus as an ancient Greek Mathemetician. Alledging he was of Babylonian birth or not Greek is not supported.
Vandalism
editLooks like there has been a fair amount of vandalism in the past couple of weeks that is not getting reverted. I am not a regular contributor here but, to those who are, you might want to think about protecting the page.
diophantus and khwarizmi
editThe recent addition comparing Diophantus and Khwarizmi could potentially be valuable but http://www.crystalinks.com/diophantus.html is a blog page and therefore is not a reliable source. Tkuvho (talk) 12:30, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
Diophantus' lifetime deduced from the price of wine?
editI've removed the following sentence (added by an IP without any hint of a citation) from the section "Biography":
"It was at first found that Diophantus lived between AD 250-350 by analysing the price of wine used in many of his mathematical texts and finding out the period during which wine was sold at that price." --Florian Blaschke (talk) 03:12, 16 June 2020 (UTC)