Thymaridas

Thymaridas of Paros (

Life and work

Although little is known about the life of Thymaridas, it is believed that he was a rich man who fell into poverty. It is said that Thestor of Poseidonia traveled to Paros in order to help Thymaridas with the money that was collected for him.

Iamblichus in his comments to

or using modern notation, the solution of the following system of n linear equations in n unknowns:[1]

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}x+x_{1}+x_{2}+\cdots +x_{n-1}&=s,\\x+x_{1}&=m_{1},\\x+x_{2}&=m_{2},\\&~~\vdots \\x+x_{n-1}&=m_{n-1}\end{aligned}}}$

is given by

${\displaystyle x={\frac {(m_{1}+m_{2}+\cdots +m_{n-1})-s}{n-2}}.}$

Iamblichus goes on to describe how some systems of linear equations that are not in this form can be placed into this form.^[1]

References

• ISBN 0-486-24073-8
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• ISBN 0-486-42165-1
  .