Accessible but rigorous, this outstanding text encompasses all of the topics covered by a typical course in elementary abstract algebra. Its easy-to-read treatment offers an intuitive approach, featuring informal discussions followed by thematically arranged exercises. This second edition features additional exercises to improve student familiarity with applications. 1990 edition.
John Wallis (1616-1703) was the most influential English mathematician prior to Newton. He published his most famous work, Arithmetica Infinitorum, in Latin in 1656. This book studied the quadrature of curves and systematised the analysis of Descartes and Cavelieri. Upon publication, this text immediately became the standard book on the subject and was frequently referred to by subsequent writers. This will be the first English translation of this text ever to be published.
A Discourse Concerning Algebra, provides a new and readable account of the rise of algebra in England from the Medieval period to the later years of the 17th Century.Stedall's book follows the reception and dissemination of important algebraic ideas and methods from continental Europe and the consequent revolution in the state of English mathematics in the 17th century.
"The binomial theorem is usually quite rightly considered as one of the most important theorems in the whole of analysis." Thus wrote Bernard Bolzano in 1816 in introducing the first correct proof of Newton's generalisation of a century and a half earlier of a result familiar to us all from elementary algebra. Bolzano's appraisal may surprise the modern reader familiar only with the finite algebraic version of the Binomial Theorem involving positive integral exponents, and may also appear incongruous to one familiar with Newton's series for rational exponents. Yet his statement was a sound judgment back in the day. Here the story of the Binomial Theorem is presented in all its glory, from the early days in India, the Moslem world, and China as an essential tool for root extraction, through Newton's generalisation and its central role in infinite series expansions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and to its rigorous foundation in the 19th. The exposition is well-organised and fairly complete with all the necessary details, yet still readable and understandable for those with a limited mathematical background, say at the Calculus level or just below that. The present book, with its many citations from the literature, will be of interest to anyone concerned with the history or foundations of mathematics.
