A Manual of Quaternions (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from A Manual of Quaternions

From these principles it follows almost immediately that quater nion multiplication is associative as well as distributive.

Division is seen to be deducible from multiplication, and on p. 12 we arrive at the important result that every function of quaternions formed by ordinary algebraic processes is a quaternion, scalars and vectors being considered to be special cases.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Manual of Quaternions

Readers of the Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton will recollect that he undertook the publication of a book on quaternions to serve as an introduction to his great volume of Lectures. This Manual of Quaternions was intended to occupy about 400 pages, but while the printing slowly progressed it grew to such a size that it came to be regarded by its author as a "book of reference" rather than as a text-book, and the title was accordingly changed to The Elements of Quaternions. By a curious series of events one of Hamilton's successors at the Observatory of Trinity College has felt himself obliged to endeavour to carry out to the best of his ability Hamilton's original intention. And on the centenary of Hamilton's birth a Manual of Quaternions is offered to the mathematical world.

Last year I was called upon by the Board of Trinity College to assist in the examination for Fellowship. I had long ago recognized that another work on quaternions was required, and this want was forcibly brought home to me by my new duties. A mathematician, whose time is limited, is frightened at the magnitude of Hamilton's bulky tomes, although a closer acquaintance with the Elements would reveal the admirable lucidity and the logical completeness of that wonderful book, and although the Lectures have a charm all their own. The student wants to attain, by the shortest and simplest route, to a working knowledge of the calculus; he cannot be expected to undertake the study of quaternions in the hope of being rewarded by the beauty of the ideas and by the elegance of the analysis. And for his sake, though with reluctance I must confess, I have abandoned Hamilton's methods of establishing the laws of quaternions.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.