Lectures on Quaternions: containing a systematic Statement of A New Mathematical Method; of which the principles were communicated in 1843 to The Royal Irish Academy; and which has since formed the subject of successive courses of lectures, delivered in 1848 and subsequent years, in the halls of Trinity College, Dublin; with numerous illustrative diagrams, and with some geometrical and physical applications.

HAMILTON, Sir William Rowan.

Published by Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1853

About this Item

First collected edition, bringing together a full decade's worth of work by the father of quaternions. William Rowan Hamilton hit upon the notion of quaternions in 1843: the discovery famously excited him so much that he carved the equations into the side of a Dublin bridge. He dedicated the remainder of his life to developing his idea, publishing well over 100 papers before his death in 1865. His key insight was that one could sacrifice the commutative law of multiplication and yet still retain a consistent algebraic language; and many essential concepts in vector analysis have their roots in the Lectures. In this, his discoveries have been said to be "comparable in importance to the invention of non-Euclidean geometry" (PMM), and to have supplanted the earlier work of Lagrange and Laplace. Norman 985; Printing and the Mind of Man 334. Octavo. Bound without half-title. Wood-engraved publisher's device to title page, extensive formulae in the text. Recased in original brown cloth, spine ruled in blind and lettered in gilt, covers panelled and decorated in blind, yellow coated endpapers. Purple ink signature of Henry Bourget (1864-1921), a French mathematician and astronomer, to head of title page, along with black ink "1912 Juin 19". Light bumping and wear, sunning to spine, remnants of bookplate adhesive to front pastedown, minimal foxing to contents: a very good copy indeed.

Seller Inventory # 180065

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Lectures on Quaternions: containing a systematic Statement of A New Mathematical Method; of which the principles were communicated in 1843 to The Royal Irish Academy; and which has since formed the subject of successive courses of lectures, delivered in 1848 and subsequent years, in the halls of Trinity College, Dublin; with numerous illustrative diagrams, and with some geometrical and physical applications.
• Publisher: Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1853
• Edition: 1st Edition