Dean Joiner, age 15, of Utica, N.Y., for his question:

WHO WAS OMAR KHAYYAM?

Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet, astronomer and mathematician. He probably lived from about 1050 until about 1123.

One of Omar Khayyam's longer poems, "The Rubaiyat," has brought ,the poet lasting fame.

"The Rubaiyat," a collection of quatrains, or four line rhymes, first attracted attention in 1859 when Edward Fitzgerald translated about 100 of the quatrains credited to Omar Khayyam. The poet wrote with gentle melancholy about nature, regret for the fleeting sweetness of light and the pleasure of love.

Omar Khayyam was born and educated in Nishapur (now Neyshabur), Iran. As royal astronomer, he changed the Persian calendar. He devised one that may have been more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.

Omar Khayyam also wrote an Arabic book on algebra that included a classification of equations.