Reviews for A History of Vector Analysis: The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System

The average rating for A History of Vector Analysis: The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-09 00:00:00 John Henrikson [Before reading] I'll bet dollars to dimes that Pynchon used this as background when researching Against the Day. Check out the Wikipedia article if you're skeptical. Unable to resist... just ordered. _____________________ [After reading] Crowe's book did not disappoint, and I recommend it both to Pynchonheads and to people interested in finding out how modern mathematics got to be the way it is. If you fall into both categories, you are insane if you don't go and order a copy now. Regarding Against the Day, I am now certain that Pynchon used it as a major source when creating his book. In fact, I can't help wondering if the whole novel wasn't inspired by this rather fine quote from Benjamin Peirce's 1855 book Analytical Mechanics:But the strongest use of the symbol i is to be found in its magical power of doubling the actual universe, and placing by its side an ideal universe, its exact counterpart, with which it can be compared and contrasted, and, by means of curiously connecting fibres, form with it an organic whole, from which modern analysis has developed her surpassing geometry.I'm curious to hear from people who know more about Pynchon and can say whether this has been discussed earlier. If you just want to find out about the history of mathematics, Crowe absolutely delivers there too. I was first exposed to vector spaces and the scalar and vector products in my early teens, and have long regarded them as something so obvious that they scarcely required an explanation. I knew about quaternions, and was vaguely aware that they historically antedate modern vector analysis, but it wasn't until I read Pynchon that I started becoming interested in discovering what actually happened. What was the link between these two frameworks? Where did the other systems of vector analysis come from, in particular the one pioneered by Grassmann? Who the hell was Grassmann, anyway? I now know the answers to all these questions. The thing that surprised me most: the scalar and vector products turn out to be parts of the original quaternion product, which have been cut up and rebranded. It really is a startling lesson in the art of how science gets done. I have trouble understanding how this excellent book can only have fourteen ratings on Goodreads. Don't pay any attention to me; but if the great Pynchon was prepared to spend several years and over a thousand pages writing an extended trailer for it, you'd expect just a little more buzz.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-24 00:00:00 Han Solo Excelent history of the evolution of vector method I learned a great deal on the origin of the current Gibbs-Heaviside vector system used in engineering and mathematics. I do wish that more was said on Clifford, but the level of coverage seems to be appropriate for the level of influence Clifford had.