The Arabs contributed nothing new to the theory, but al-Khowârizmî (c. 825) states the usual rules, and the same is true of his successors. - David Eugene Smith

The fact that arithmetic and geometry took such a notable step forward... was due in no small measure to the introduction of Egyptian papyrus into Greece. This event occurred about 650 B.C., and the invention of printing in the 15th century did not more surely effect a revolution in thought than did this introduction of writing material on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea just before the time of Thales.

Among his <nowiki>[</nowiki>John Wallis'<nowiki>]</nowiki> interesting discoveries was the relation <math>\frac{4}{\pi} = \frac32\cdot\frac34\cdot\frac54\cdot\frac56\cdot\frac76\cdot\frac78\cdots</math>
one of the early values of π involving infinite products.

It is difficult to say who it is who first recognized the advantage of always equating to zero in the study of the general equation. It may very likely have been Napier, for he wrote his De Arte Logistica before 1594, and in this there is evidence that he understood the advantage of this procedure. Bürgi also recognized the value of making the second member zero, Harriot may have done the same, and the influence of Descartes was such that the usage became fairly general.