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Degree 45: François Viète rises to the challenge! | Tangente

Degree 45: François Viète rises to the challenge!

Reconstructing a historic mathematical challenge.

Written by

André Deledicq

PublishedMarch 20, 2020UpdatedSeptember 22, 20261 min read

Read in: English

Degree 45: François Viète rises to the challenge!

The Dutch ambassador challenges Henry IV ----------------------------------------

1595, Château de Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne. Henry IV has been king of France for four years. That day, he is showing his guest, the Dutch ambassador, around the magnificent apartments decorated by Philibert de l'Orme. The ambassador is dazzled, but tempers his enthusiasm: "Sire, France boasts the finest artists of our Renaissance in the arts and letters, yet none of your subjects appears on the list of eminent figures in science that Sieur Adrien Romain has just published in his latest book."

Henry IV starts and raises his arms to heaven, making him seem even taller than he already is: "How can you utter such a falsehood, sir! Please have Sieur de la Bigottière brought before us here at once."

François Viète (1540–1603), then a special adviser to the king of France, is ushered in. The ambassador produces the challenge he has brought along to cordially humiliate the French: "Can you, sir, solve this equation posed by our mathematician Adrien Romain?"

He opens Adrien Romain's latest book to a page displaying this enormous equation:

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