These are the show notes for episode 17 of the Travels in a Mathematical World podcast. 17 is prime, the only prime of the form pq + qp, where p and q are prime. More about the number 17 from Number Gossip.
In the regular Maths History series, Noel-Ann Bradshaw of the University of Greenwich and also Meetings Co-ordinator of the British Society for the History of Mathematics talks about the life of al-Kharazmi. You can read a biography of al-Kharazmi at the MacTutor History of Maths Archive, read more information on the al-Kharazmi page at Wikipedia and find out about the concept of Algorithms at Wikipedia and a history of algebra at algebra.com.
You can find out more about my work with the IMA by reading this blog and visiting www.ima.org.uk/student.