devised an iterative method to compute the square root, which is actually a special case of the more general Newton's method.

The term surd traces back to Al-Khwarizmi , who referred to rational and irrational numbers as "audible" and "inaudible", respectively. This later led to the Arabic word ??? (asamm, meaning "deaf" or "dumb") for "irrational number" being translated into Latin as surdus