Vector Analysis
 Title page to Vector Analysis by Edwin Bidwell Wilson (1907 copy) | |
| Author | Edwin Bidwell Wilson |
|---|---|
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Vector calculus |
| Publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons, Dover Publications |
Publication date | 1901 |
Vector Analysis is a textbook by Edwin Bidwell Wilson, first published in 1901 and based on the lectures that Josiah Willard Gibbs had delivered on the subject at Yale University. The book did much to standardize the notation and vocabulary of three-dimensional linear algebra and vector calculus, as used by physicists and mathematicians. It was reprinted by Yale in 1913, 1916, 1922, 1925, 1929, 1931, and 1943. The work is now in the public domain. It was reprinted by Dover Publications in 1960.
Contents
The book carries the subtitle "A text-book for the use of students of mathematics and physics. Founded upon the lectures of J. Willard Gibbs, Ph.D., LL.D." The first chapter covers
The final eight pages develop
Genesis
In 1888 Gibbs sent a copy of his pamphlet to Oliver Heaviside who was formulating his own vectorial system in the Transactions of the Royal Society, praised Gibbs' "little book", saying it "deserves to be well known". However, he also noted that it was "much too condensed for a first introduction to the subject".[2]
On the occasion of the bicentennial of Yale University, a series of publications were to be issued to showcase Yale's role in the advancement of knowledge. Gibbs was authoring Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics for that series. Mindful of the demand for innovative university textbooks, the editor of the series, Professor Morris, wished to include also a volume dedicated to Gibbs's lectures on vectors, but Gibbs's time and attention were entirely absorbed by the Statistical Mechanics.
E. B. Wilson was then a new graduate student in mathematics. He had learned about quaternions from James Mills Peirce at Harvard, but Dean A. W. Phillips persuaded him to take Gibbs's course on vectors, which treated similar problems from a rather different perspective. After Wilson had completed the course, Morris approached him about the project of producing a textbook. Wilson wrote the book by expanding his own class notes, providing exercises, and consulting with others (including his father).[3]
-
1907 copy of Vector Analysis -
Preface to Vector Analysis (1907) -
Table of contents to Vector Analysis (1907) -
First page of Vector Analysis (1907)
References
- ^ Gibbs (1881–4) Elements of Vector Analysis: arranged for students in physics via Internet Archive
- ^ Oliver Heaviside (1892) "On the forces, stresses, and fluxes of energy in the electromagnetic field", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 183:423–80.
- ^ Edwin Bidwell Wilson (1931) "Reminiscences of Gibbs by a student and colleague" Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. Volume 37, Number 6, 401–416.
- Alexander Ziwet (1902) Review of Vector Analysis, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 8:207–15.
- Anon. (review) Bulletin des sciences mathématiques 26:21–30.
- Victor Schlegel (review) Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik 33:96–7.
- Cargill Gilston Knott (review) Philosophical Magazine 6th Ser, 4:614–22.
- Michael J. Crowe (1967) A History of Vector Analysis, Notre Dame University Press.
External links
- E. B. Wilson (1901) Vector Analysis, based on the Lectures of J. W. Gibbs at Internet Archive.
- Edwin Bidwell Wilson (1913). Vector Analysis. Founded upon the lectures of J. William Gibbs. New Haven: Yale University Press – via Wikimedia Commons.