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This is the first time that the equals sign was recorded in a book as a mathematical symbolBorn in Tenby, Pembrokeshire circa 1510, at the age of fifteen Robert Recorde entered Oxford University, graduating in 1531. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College. Moving to Cambridge University he obtained a degree in medicine in 1545. He was recognised by both universities as a 'brilliant and influential teacher of mathematics'. He is known as the founder of the English School of Mathematics and was the first person to write mathematical books in English. In 1557 he wrote The Whetstone of Witte which introduced algebra and the equals sign, described thus: "because noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle". He also invented the trigonometrical term 'sine' and the method of extracting the square root as we use it today. His works continued to be published for 150 years after his death in 1558.

This is the first time that the equals sign was recorded in a book as a mathematical symbol