Adequality

Adequality is a technique developed by <a href="/facts/Pierre_de_Fermat/FLbUh75u">Pierre de Fermat</a> in his treatise Methodus ad disquirendam maximam et minimam (a <a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a> treatise circulated in France c. 1636 ) to calculate <a href="/facts/Maxima_and_minima/ADlgnyzV">maxima and minima</a> of functions, <a href="/facts/Tangent/sF0jH3EI">tangents</a> to curves, <a href="/facts/Area/KsNG1G9t">area</a>, <a href="/facts/Center_of_mass/n4Lr9GAz">center of mass</a>, <a href="/facts/Least_action/QaBTpoKz">least action</a>, and other problems in <a href="/facts/Calculus/MEmUTYoz">calculus</a>. According to <a href="/facts/Andr%25C3%25A9_Weil/Q4Dd0Gr4">André Weil</a>, Fermat "introduces the technical term adaequalitas, adaequare, etc., which he says he has borrowed from <a href="/facts/Diophantus/XTWRgRWP">Diophantus</a>. As Diophantus V.11 shows, it means an approximate equality, and this is indeed how Fermat explains the word in one of his later writings." (Weil 1973). Diophantus coined the word παρισότης (parisotēs) to refer to an approximate equality. <a href="/facts/Claude_Gaspard_Bachet_de_M%25C3%25A9ziriac/HcoGIh5S">Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac</a> translated Diophantus's Greek word into Latin as adaequalitas. <a href="/facts/Paul_Tannery/4l9UBtYj">Paul Tannery</a>'s French translation of Fermat's Latin treatises on maxima and minima used the words adéquation and adégaler.

Adequality open-in-new

Adequality