That's a quote from al-Khwārizmī[1], the medieval Persian mathematician whose name the word "algorithm" comes from. Victor didn't complicate the process. He us

That's a quote from al-Khwārizmī[1], the medieval Persian mathematician whose name the word "algorithm" comes from. Victor didn't complicate the process. He used that quote to illustrate his claim that it's precisely because of innovations in symbolic representation (i.e., representing the equation as x^2 + 10x + 39) that you are able to think of the process as simple. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_M%C5%ABs%C4%81_al-Khw%C4%81rizm%C4%AB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_M%C5%ABs%C...