Pell

John Pell

Born: 1 March 1611 in Southwick, Sussex, England
Died: 12 Dec 1685 in London, England

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Pell worked on algebra and number theory. He gave a table of factors of all integers up to 100000 in 1668. Pell's equation y^2=ax^2+1, where a is a non-square integer, was first studied by Brahmagupta and Bhaskara. Its complete theory was worked out by Lagrange, not Pell.

It is often said that Euler mistakenly attributed Brouncker's work on this equation to Pell. However the equation appears in a book by Rahn which was certainly written with Pell's help: some say entirely written by Pell. Perhaps Euler knew what he was doing in naming the equation.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Pell's equation

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. J Aubrey, John Pell, Brief lives II (Oxford, 1898), 121-131.
  3. P J Wallis, An early mathematical manifesto - John Pell's 'Idea of Mathematics', Durham Research Review 18 (1967), 139-148. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996