Notes On the History of Mathematics: The Rule of False Position

Abstract

The Rule of False Position, Single and Double, is a method of solving equations of the First, degree in one unknown by guessing the answer and then adjusting the guess in terms of the conditions of the problem. As the name suggests, there might be one such guess or there might be two. The word position in this ease is used in the sense of a “thing on which one takes a stand”—in its meaning here it is allied to the idea of letting or allowing, forming a tenet or proposition on which one expects to act. Supposition would be closer to our thinking.