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From its pre-historic roots in simple counting to the algorithms powering modern desktop computers, from the genius of Archimedes to the genius of Einstein, advances in mathematical understanding and numerical techniques have been directly responsible for creating the modern world as we know it. This series will provide a library of the most influential publications and writers on mathematics in its broadest sense. As such, it will show not only the deep roots from which modern science and technology have grown, but also the astonishing breadth of application of mathematical techniques in the humanities and social sciences and in everyday life.

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182 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Mathematics

Page 1 of 10

A Treatise on Differential Equations
  • George Boole
  • Published online:
    05 December 2014
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
  • The need to support his family meant that George Boole (1815–64) was a largely self-educated mathematician. Widely recognised for his ability, he became the first professor of mathematics at Cork. Boole belonged to the British school of algebra, which held what now seems to modern mathematicians to be an excessive belief in the power of symbolism. However, in Boole's hands symbolic algebra became a source of novel and lasting mathematics. Also reissued in this series, his masterpiece was An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), and his two later works A Treatise on Differential Equations (1859) and A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences (1860) exercised an influence which can still be traced in many modern treatments of differential equations and numerical analysis. The beautiful and mysterious formulae that Boole obtained are among the direct ancestors of the theories of distributions and of operator algebras.

Tables Requisite to Be Used with the Nautical Ephemeris, for Finding the Latitude and Longitude at Sea
  • Published by Order of the Commissioners of Longitude
  • Nevil Maskelyne
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • Successful long-distance navigation depends on knowing latitude and longitude, and the determination of longitude depends on knowing the exact time at some fixed point on the earth's surface. Since Newton it had been hoped that a method based on accurate prediction of the moon's orbit would give such a time. Building on the work of Euler, Thomas Mayer and others, the astronomer and mathematician Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811) was able to devise such a method and yearly publication of the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris placed it in the hands of every ship's captain. First published in 1767 and reissued here in the revised third edition of 1802, the present work provided the necessary tables and instructions. The development of rugged and accurate chronometers eventually displaced Maskelyne's method, but navigators continued to make use of it for many decades. This edition of the tables notably formed part of the library of the Beagle on Darwin's famous voyage.

Mathematical Papers of the Late George Green
  • George Green
  • Edited by N. M. Ferrers
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • A miller's son, George Green (1793–1841) received little formal schooling yet managed to acquire significant knowledge of modern mathematics, especially French work. In 1828 he published his Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism, the work for which he is now celebrated. Admitted to Cambridge in 1833 as a mature student, Green went on to become a fellow of Gonville and Caius College. His early death, however, cut short a promising career as a mathematical physicist. While English contemporaries saw what he might have achieved, they did not understand what he had actually achieved. Only when William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) rediscovered Green's first publication and shared it with the French mathematical elite was his greatness truly appreciated. Edited by the Cambridge mathematician Norman Macleod Ferrers (1829–1903) and published in 1871, this collection comprises Green's influential essay and nine further papers.

The Elements of Algebra
  • Designed for the Use of Students in the University
  • James Wood
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • In his autobiography, Charles Darwin wrote of his time at Cambridge: 'I attempted mathematics … but I got on very slowly. The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra. This impatience was very foolish, and in after years I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.' First published in 1795 and reissued here in its 1815 sixth edition, The Elements of Algebra by James Wood (1760–1839) was one of the standard Cambridge texts for decades, so its presence in Darwin's library aboard the Beagle is readily understandable. Then, as now, Cambridge had a high opinion of itself as a mathematical university. The contents of Wood's book give an interesting glimpse of the standards expected of the less able students.

Cours d'analyse de l'ecole polytechnique
  • Volume 1, Calcul différentiel
  • Camille Jordan
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • One of the great algebraists of the nineteenth century, Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838–1922) became known for his work on matrices, Galois theory and group theory. However, his most profound effect on how we see mathematics came through his Cours d'analyse, which appeared in three editions. Reissued here is the first edition, which was published in three volumes between 1882 and 1887. While highly influential in its time, it now appears to us a transitional work between the partially rigorous 'epsilon delta' calculus of Cauchy and his successors, and the new 'real number' analysis of Weierstrass and Cantor. The first two volumes follow the old tradition while the third volume incorporates a substantial amount of the new analysis. Ten years later, the even more influential second edition followed the new point of view from its start. Volume 1 (1882) covers differential calculus.

Cours d'analyse de l'ecole polytechnique
  • Volume 2, Calcul intégral; Intégrales définies et indéfinies
  • Camille Jordan
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • One of the great algebraists of the nineteenth century, Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838–1922) became known for his work on matrices, Galois theory and group theory. However, his most profound effect on how we see mathematics came through his Cours d'analyse, which appeared in three editions. Reissued here is the first edition, which was published in three volumes between 1882 and 1887. While highly influential in its time, it now appears to us a transitional work between the partially rigorous 'epsilon delta' calculus of Cauchy and his successors, and the new 'real number' analysis of Weierstrass and Cantor. The first two volumes follow the old tradition while the third volume incorporates a substantial amount of the new analysis. Ten years later, the even more influential second edition followed the new point of view from its start. Volume 2 (1883) covers the theory of integrals.

Cours d'analyse de l'ecole polytechnique
  • Volume 3, Calcul intégral; équations différentielles
  • Camille Jordan
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • One of the great algebraists of the nineteenth century, Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838–1922) became known for his work on matrices, Galois theory and group theory. However, his most profound effect on how we see mathematics came through his Cours d'analyse, which appeared in three editions. Reissued here is the first edition, which was published in three volumes between 1882 and 1887. While highly influential in its time, it now appears to us a transitional work between the partially rigorous 'epsilon delta' calculus of Cauchy and his successors, and the new 'real number' analysis of Weierstrass and Cantor. The first two volumes follow the old tradition while the third volume incorporates a substantial amount of the new analysis. Ten years later, the even more influential second edition followed the new point of view from its start. Volume 3 (1887) covers the integration of differential equations and the calculus of variations.

Treatise on Conic Sections
  • Edited in Modern Notation with Introductions, Including an Essay on the Earlier History of the Subject
  • Apollonius of Perga
  • Edited by T. L. Heath
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • Active in Alexandria in the third century BCE, Apollonius of Perga ranks as one of the greatest Greek geometers. Building on foundations laid by Euclid, he is famous for defining the parabola, hyperbola and ellipse in his major treatise on conic sections. The dense nature of its text, however, made it inaccessible to most readers. When it was originally published in 1896 by the civil servant and classical scholar Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940), the present work was the first English translation and, more importantly, the first serious effort to standardise the terminology and notation. Along with clear diagrams, Heath includes a thorough introduction to the work and the history of the subject. Seeing the treatise as more than an esoteric artefact, Heath presents it as a valuable tool for modern mathematicians. His works on Diophantos of Alexandria (1885) and Aristarchus of Samos (1913) are also reissued in this series.

Die Ausdehnungslehre
  • Vollständig und in strenger Form bearbeitet
  • Hermann Grassmann
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    16 October 2013
  • In 1844, the Prussian schoolmaster Hermann Grassmann (1809–77) published Die Lineale Ausdehnungslehre (also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection). This revolutionary work anticipated the modern theory of vector spaces and exterior algebras. It was little understood at the time and the few sympathetic mathematicians, rather than trying harder to comprehend it, urged Grassmann to write an extended version of his theories. The present work is that version, first published in 1862. However, this also proved too far ahead of its time and Grassmann turned to historical linguistics, in which field his contributions are still remembered. His mathematical work eventually found champions such as Hankel, Peano, Whitehead and Élie Cartan, and it is now recognised for the brilliant achievement that it was in the history of mathematics.

Memoirs of the Analytical Society
  • Charles Babbage, John Herschel
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • By the end of the eighteenth century, British mathematics had been stuck in a rut for a hundred years. Calculus was still taught in the style of Newton, with no recognition of the great advances made in continental Europe. The examination system at Cambridge even mandated the use of Newtonian notation. As discontented undergraduates, Charles Babbage (1791–1871) and John Herschel (1792–1871) formed the Analytical Society in 1811. The group, including William Whewell and George Peacock, sought to promote the new continental mathematics. Babbage's preface to the present work, first published in 1813, may be considered the movement's manifesto. He provided the first paper here, and Herschel the two others. Although the group was relatively short-lived, its ideas took root as its erstwhile members rose to prominence. As the society's sole publication, this remains a significant text in the history of British mathematics.

Aristarchus of Samos, the Ancient Copernicus
  • A History of Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus, Together with Aristarchus's Treatise on the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon
  • Thomas Heath
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • The Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos was active in the third century BCE, more than a thousand years before Copernicus presented his model of a heliocentric solar system. It was Aristarchus, however, who first suggested - in a work that is now lost - that the planets revolve around the sun. Edited by Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940), this 1913 publication contains the ancient astronomer's only surviving treatise, which does not propound the heliocentric hypothesis. The Greek text is based principally on the tenth-century manuscript Vaticanus Graecus 204. Heath also provides a facing-page English translation and explanatory notes. The treatise is prefaced by a substantial history of ancient Greek astronomy, ranging from Homer's first mention of constellations to work by Heraclides of Pontus in the fourth century BCE relating to the Earth's rotation. Heath's collection of translated ancient texts, Greek Astronomy (1932), is also reissued in this series.

Oeuvres complètes
  • Series 2
  • Volume 2
  • Augustin-Louis Cauchy
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1958
  • Augustin-Louis, Baron Cauchy (1789–1857) was the pre-eminent French mathematician of the nineteenth century. He began his career as a military engineer during the Napoleonic Wars, but even then was publishing significant mathematical papers, and was persuaded by Lagrange and Laplace to devote himself entirely to mathematics. His greatest contributions are considered to be the Cours d'analyse de l'École Royale Polytechnique (1821), Résumé des leçons sur le calcul infinitésimal (1823) and Leçons sur les applications du calcul infinitésimal à la géométrie (1826–8), and his pioneering work encompassed a huge range of topics, most significantly real analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, and theoretical mechanics. Twenty-six volumes of his collected papers were published between 1882 and 1958. The first series (volumes 1-12) consists of papers published by the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France; the second series (volumes 13-26) of papers published elsewhere.

Odd Numbers
  • Herbert McKay
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1940
  • Mathematics has a reputation of being dull and difficult. Here is an antidote. This lively exploration of arithmetic considers its basic processes and manipulations, demonstrating their value and power and justifying an enduring interest in the subject. With humour and insight, the author shows how basic mathematics relates to everyday life – as true now as when this book was originally published in 1940. The introductory treatment of millions, billions and even trillions could be profitably read by aspiring bankers, economists or politicians. H. G. Wells is gently teased for his mistake in applying the law of proportionality in a novel. McKay politely adjusts the astronomical scales selected by the eminent cosmologist Sir James Jeans. He confidently navigates the hazards of averages, approximations and units. For anyone interested in what numbers mean and how they can be used most effectively, this book will still educate and delight.

Oeuvres complètes
  • Series 2
  • Volume 14
  • Augustin-Louis Cauchy
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1938
  • Augustin-Louis, Baron Cauchy (1789–1857) was the pre-eminent French mathematician of the nineteenth century. He began his career as a military engineer during the Napoleonic Wars, but even then was publishing significant mathematical papers, and was persuaded by Lagrange and Laplace to devote himself entirely to mathematics. His greatest contributions are considered to be the Cours d'analyse de l'École Royale Polytechnique (1821), Résumé des leçons sur le calcul infinitésimal (1823) and Leçons sur les applications du calcul infinitésimal à la géométrie (1826–8), and his pioneering work encompassed a huge range of topics, most significantly real analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, and theoretical mechanics. Twenty-six volumes of his collected papers were published between 1882 and 1958. The first series (volumes 1-12) consists of papers published by the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France; the second series (volumes 13-26) of papers published elsewhere.

Science and Music
  • James Jeans
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1937
  • Sir James Jeans has used his remarkable gifts of exposition to set out all that is relevant in the science of acoustics to the art of music. He offers a simple but precise account (illustrated with well-chosen photographs and diagrams) of the anatomical origin and workings of the human ear; the nature of sound vibrations; simple tones and complex sounds; the principles and operation of musical instruments; harmony and the musical scale; the effects of music on men and animals; and the practical problems of acoustical design. Scientists who appreciate music, musicians with an interest in science and laymen who care for both, will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Electricity and Magnetism
  • An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory
  • Arthur Stanley Ramsey
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1937
  • A. S. Ramsey (1867–1954) was a distinguished Cambridge mathematician and President of Magdalene College. He wrote several textbooks 'for the use of higher divisions in schools and for first-year students at university'. This book on electricity and magnetism, first published in 1937, and based upon his lectures over many years, was 'adapted more particularly to the needs of candidates for Part I of the Mathematical Tripos'. It covers electrostatics, conductors and condensers, dielectrics, electrical images, currents, magnetism and electromagnetism, and magnetic induction. The book is interspersed with examples for solution, for some of which answers are provided.

Statics
  • A Text-Book for the Use of the Higher Divisions in Schools and for First Year Students at the Universities
  • Arthur Stanley Ramsey
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1934
  • A. S. Ramsey (1867–1954) was a distinguished Cambridge mathematician and President of Magdalene College. He wrote several textbooks 'for the use of higher divisions in schools and for first year students at university'. This book on statics, published in 1934, was intended as a companion volume to his Dynamics of 1929 and like the latter was based upon his lectures to students of the mathematical tripos, but it assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, provides an introduction and offers more that 100 example problems with their solutions. Topics include vectors, forces acting at a point, moments, friction, centres of gravity, work and energy, and elasticity.

Principles of Geometry
  • Volume 6, Introduction to the Theory of Algebraic Surfaces and Higher Loci
  • H. F. Baker
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1933
  • Henry Frederick Baker (1866–1956) was a renowned British mathematician specialising in algebraic geometry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1898 and appointed the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge in 1914. First published between 1922 and 1925, the six-volume Principles of Geometry was a synthesis of Baker's lecture series on geometry and was the first British work on geometry to use axiomatic methods without the use of co-ordinates. The first four volumes describe the projective geometry of space of between two and five dimensions, with the last two volumes reflecting Baker's later research interests in the birational theory of surfaces. The work as a whole provides a detailed insight into the geometry which was developing at the time of publication. This, the sixth and final volume, describes the birational geometric theory of surfaces.

Principles of Geometry
  • Volume 5, Analytical Principles of the Theory of Curves
  • H. F. Baker
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1933
  • Henry Frederick Baker (1866–1956) was a renowned British mathematician specialising in algebraic geometry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1898 and appointed the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge in 1914. First published between 1922 and 1925, the six-volume Principles of Geometry was a synthesis of Baker's lecture series on geometry and was the first British work on geometry to use axiomatic methods without the use of co-ordinates. The first four volumes describe the projective geometry of space of between two and five dimensions, with the last two volumes reflecting Baker's later research interests in the birational theory of surfaces. The work as a whole provides a detailed insight into the geometry which was developing at the time of publication. This, the fifth volume, describes the birational geometry of curves.

Oeuvres complètes
  • Series 2
  • Volume 13
  • Augustin-Louis Cauchy
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1932
  • Augustin-Louis, Baron Cauchy (1789–1857) was the pre-eminent French mathematician of the nineteenth century. He began his career as a military engineer during the Napoleonic Wars, but even then was publishing significant mathematical papers, and was persuaded by Lagrange and Laplace to devote himself entirely to mathematics. His greatest contributions are considered to be the Cours d'analyse de l'École Royale Polytechnique (1821), Résumé des leçons sur le calcul infinitésimal (1823) and Leçons sur les applications du calcul infinitésimal à la géométrie (1826–8), and his pioneering work encompassed a huge range of topics, most significantly real analysis, the theory of functions of a complex variable, and theoretical mechanics. Twenty-six volumes of his collected papers were published between 1882 and 1958. The first series (volumes 1-12) consists of papers published by the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France; the second series (volumes 13-26) of papers published elsewhere.

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