The Theory of Matrices in the 19th Century
نویسندگان
چکیده
Although the origins of the theory of matrices can be traced back to the 18th century and although it was not until the 20th century that it had become sufficiently absorbed into the mathematical mainstream to warrant extensive treatment in textbooks and monographs, it was truly a creation of the 19th century. When one contemplates the history of matrix theory, the name that immediately comes to mind is that of Arthur Cay ley. In 1858 Cayley published A memoir on the theory of matrices in which he introduced the term "matrix" for a square array of numbers and observed that they could be added and multiplied so as to form what we now call a linear associative algebra. Because of this memoir, historians and mathematicians alike have regarded Cayley as the founder of the theory of matrices; he laid the foundations in his 1858 memoir, so the story goes, upon which other mathematicians were then able to erect the edifice we now call the theory of matrices. For convenience I shall refer to this interpretation of the history of matrix theory as the Cayley-as-Founder view. It is a very simplistic interpretation which, as I will indicate, does not make much historical sense. The history of the theory of matrices is much more complex than the Cayley-as-Founder view would imply. Indeed its history is truly international in scope and hence seems an especially appropriate subject for a Congress such as this. I will begin by indicating several reasons why Cayley's memoir of 1858 does not have the historical significance that the Cayleyas-Founder view suggests. In the first place, Cayley's celebrated memoir went generally unnoticed, especially outside of England, until the 1880's. This was before the days of comprehensive abstracting journals—the first began ten years later in 1868—and Cayley had published his memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, some-
منابع مشابه
The position of Persian language and literature in Ottoman’s 19th century literature and historical developments
With the spread of western reforms in the 13th/9th century, Ottoman’s literature was reformed either. To reform Ottoman literature, they decided to transform the Ottoman language and literature relations with Persian language and literature. On one hand, they considered problems of Ottoman literature regarding Pindaric and its inefficiency for entering new areas such as novel, drama, and journa...
متن کاملChronicle of Datura Toxicity in the 18th and 19th Century
Background: Datura stramonium is a poisonous and common flowering plant that is a member of the Solanacae family. Datura poisonings are a rare occurrence in the 21st century, making toxicological information on this plant sparse. Historical information on Datura provides useful information on the clinical symptoms and characteristics of poisonings. This review looks at the state of knowledge on...
متن کاملA Spiritual and Moral Pursuit of Russian Literature in the 19th Century (Axiological Aspect of Literary Research)
The study of the axiological problems in literary studies is a fundamental direction of modern Russian Philology. In this paper, we will first conside, the search process for the orientations of values of Russian writers of the classical period of Russian literature in the 19th century; and second, the spiritual themselves foundations as ideological constants of the writers. The pursuit of Russ...
متن کاملاقتصاد نئوکلاسیک
How was the term "Neoclassical Economics" introduced to economics and what thoughts does it indicate? Does the current use of this term conform with the original efforts of the founders of it? These are among the questions which have always drawn the attention of economists. The term "Neoclassical Economics" was primarily introduced to the modern economics by Veblen. What he meant by it was the...
متن کاملPre-Modern and Early Modern Persian Literature: Written while Travelling?
In literary histories written in both Iran and the West it has generally be assumed that early modern Persian literary works are (technically inferior) copies of Western literary works. This has been and is still a claim. Almost no academically and scientifically sound works has substantiated this claim. While there is no point in denying a European influence on early modern Persian literature,...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2010