Abstract
IT may perhaps be rather an exaggerated statement, but it is none the less to a great extent true, that mathematicians tend to divide themselves into two classes, quaternionists and non quaternionists, and that these two classes frequently become involved in polemical controversies. But at the present time the notion of vector quantities is of frequent occurrence in physics, and it is important that everyone should have an opportunity of understanding the laws and nature of vector operations. It is not unfrequently stated that forces are vectors, because they are directed quantities, and therefore they are compounded by the parallelogram law. But the moment of inertia of a body about a line is also a directed quantity in the sense that its magnitude depends on the direction of the line, although moments of inertia, as every mathematician knows, are not compounded by the parallelogram law. Clearly dogmatic statements about vectors are dangerous for teaching purposes.
Etude sur les Quantités mathématiques. Grandeurs dirigées, Quaternions.
By Prof. Claro Cornelio Dassen Pp. vi + 133. (Paris: A. Hermann, 1903.) Price 5 francs.
Introduction to Quaternions.
By the late Profs. Philip Kelland P. G. Tait. Prepared by C. G, Knott, D.Sc. Pp. vii + 208. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 7s. 6d.
Bibliography of Quaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics.
Drawn up for the International Association for Promoting the Study of Quaternions, &c. By Alexander Macfarlane., General Secretary of the Association. Pp. 86. (Dublin: University Press, 1904.)
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Etude sur les Quantités mathématiques Grandeurs dirigées, Quaternions Introduction to Quaternions Bibliography of Quaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics . Nature 69, 604 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/069604a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069604a0