Note 34 — Chapter II · PRINCIPAL WORKS

We have noticed the representation of known quantities by consonants and the unknown by vowels in Wingate’s Arithmetick made easie, edited by John Kersey, London, 1650, algebra, p. 382; and in the second part, section 19, of Jonas Moore’s Arithmetick in two parts, London, 1660, Moore suggests as an alternative the use of z, y, x, etc., for the unknowns. The practice of representing unknowns by vowels did not spread widely in England.