Jean-Robert Argand
Jean-Robert Argand | |
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Born | July 18, 1768 Fundamental Theorem of Algebra |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics |
Jean-Robert Argand (
Life
Jean-Robert Argand was born in
Argand moved to Paris in 1806 with his family and, when managing a bookshop there, privately published his Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques (Essay on a method of representing imaginary quantities). In 1813, it was republished in the French journal Annales de Mathématiques. The Essay discussed a method of graphing complex numbers via analytical geometry. It proposed the interpretation of the value i as a rotation of 90 degrees in the Argand plane. In this essay he was also the first to propose the idea of modulus to indicate the magnitude of vectors and complex numbers, as well as the notation for vectors . The topic of complex numbers was also being studied by other mathematicians, notably Carl Friedrich Gauss and Caspar Wessel. Wessel's 1799 paper on a similar graphing technique did not attract attention.
Argand is also renowned for delivering a proof of the
The first textbook containing a proof of the theorem was
Argand died of an unknown cause on August 13, 1822, in Paris. In 1978 his proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra was called by The Mathematical Intelligencer “both ingenious and profound.”
See also
- Caspar Wessel
- −1
- Complex number
- Complex plane (also known as Argand plane)
References
- ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
- ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
- Roy, J. (n.d.) James Robert Argand Biography | World of Mathematics. Bookrags.com. Retrieved March 18, 2008. From http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jean-robert-argand-wom/.
- McGrath, K., Travers B., et al. (n.d.) James Robert Argand Biography | Word of Scientific Discovery. Bookrags.com. Retrieved March 18, 2008. From http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jean-robert-argand-wsd/.
Further reading
- Jones, Phillip S. (1970). "Argand, Jean Robert". ISBN 0-684-10114-9.
External links
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jean-Robert Argand", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- Robert Argand, Essai sur une manière de représenter des quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques, 2e édition, Gauthier Villars, Paris (1874) BNF
- Jean-Robert Argand, Biography on s9.com Archived 2015-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
- Imaginary quantities; their geometrical interpretation, English translation of Jean-Robert Argand's original French work