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''A History of Vector Analysis'' (1967) is a book on the history of vector analysis by Michael J. Crowe, originally published by the University of Notre Dame Press. As a scholarly treatment of a reformation in technical communication, the text is a contribution to the history of science. In 2002, Crowe gave a talk〔(Michael J. Crowe, A History of Vector Analysis (talk at University of Louisville, 2002) )〕 summarizing the book, including an entertaining introduction in which he covered its publication history and related the award of a Jean Scott prize of $4000. Crowe had entered the book in a competition for "a study on the history of complex and hypercomplex numbers" twenty-five years after his book was first published. ==Summary of book== The book has eight chapters: the first on the origins of vector analysis including Ancient Greek and 16th and 17th century influences; the second on the 19th century William Rowan Hamilton and quaternions; the third on other 19th and 18th century vectorial systems; the fourth on the general interest in the 19th century on vectorial systems including analysis of journal publications as well as sections on major figures and their views (e.g., Peter Guthrie Tait as an advocate of Quaternions and James Clerk Maxwell as a critic of Quaternions); the fifth on Josiah Willard Gibbs and Oliver Heaviside and their development of a modern system of vector analysis. In chapter six, "Struggle for existence", Michael J. Crowe delves into the zeitgeist that pruned down quaternion theory into vector analysis on three-dimensional space. He makes clear the ambition of this effort by considering five major texts as well as a couple dozen articles authored by participants in "The Great Vector Debate". These are the books: :''Elementary Treatise on Quaternions'' (1890) Peter Guthrie Tait :''Elements of Vector Analysis'' (1881,1884) Josiah Willard Gibbs :''Electromagnetic Theory'' (1893,1899,1912) Oliver Heaviside :''Utility of Quaternions in Physics'' (1893) Alexander MacAulay :''Vector Analysis and Quaternions'' (1906) Alexander Macfarlane Twenty of the ancillary articles appeared in Nature; others were in Philosophical Magazine, London or Edinburgh Proceedings of the Royal Society, Physical Review, and Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The authors included Cargill Gilston Knott and a half-dozen other hands. The "struggle for existence" is a phrase from Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species and Crowe quotes Darwin: "…young and rising naturalists,…will be able to view both sides of the question with impartiality." After 1901 with the Gibbs/Wilson/Yale publication Vector Analysis, the question was decided in favour of the vectorialists with separate dot and cross products. The pragmatic temper of the times set aside the four-dimensional source of vector algebra. Crowe's chapter seven is a survey of "Twelve major publications in Vector Analysis from 1894 to 1910". Of these twelve, seven are in German, two in Italian, one in Russian, and two in English. Whereas the previous chapter examined a debate in English, the final chapter notes the influence of Heinrich Hertz' results with radio and the rush of German research using vectors. Joseph George Coffin of MIT and Clark University published his ''Vector Analysis'' in 1909; it too leaned heavily into applications. Thus Crowe provides a context for Gibbs and Wilson’s famous textbook of 1901. The eighth chapter is the author's summary and conclusions.〔Quote from page ix, "Concerning bibliography. No formal bibliographical section has been included in this book. The reader will find however that the sections of notes at the end of each chapter will serve rather well as a bibliography for that chapter. Moreover the need for a bibliography is greatly diminished by the existence of a book that lists nearly all relevant primary documents published to about 1912."〕 The book relies on references in chapter endnotes instead of a bibliography section. Crowe also states that the ''Bibliography'' of the Quaternion Society, and its supplements to 1912, already listed all the primary literature for the study. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A History of Vector Analysis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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