Al-Mahani

Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Īsa Māhānī (ابوعبدالله محمد بن عیسی ماهانی) was a Persian Muslim mathematician and astronomer from Mahan, Kermān, Persia.

A series of observations of lunar and solar eclipses and planetary conjunctions, made by him from 853 to 866, was in fact used by Ibn Yunus.

He wrote commentaries on Euclid and Archimedes, and improved Ishaq ibn Hunayn's translation of Menelaus of Alexandria's Spherics. He tried vainly to solve an Archimedean problem: to divide a sphere by means of a plane into two segments being in a given ratio of volume. That problem led to a cubic equation,

$x^3 + c^2b = cx^2$

which Muslim writers called al-Mahani's equation.

See also

• List of Iranian scientists

References

• H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber 26, 1900. His failure to solve the Archimedean problem is quoted by 'Omar al-Khayyami'). See Fr. Woepcke, L'algebra d'Omar Alkhayyami 2, 96 sq. (Paris, 1851).

External links

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