Abstract
AN excellent introduction to the subject of vector analysis is provided by this book. It is admirably clear, and a natural temptation to develop so fertile a theory in excessive detail and to multiply its applications has been successfully resisted. It is a more elementary work than Dr. Silberstein's “Vectorial Mechanics,” and still more so than Joly's “Manual of Quaternions.” All the ideas which are based on the differential operator of Hamilton are excluded, and the applications are limited to geometry and to the dynamics and statics of rigid bodies. Enough remains to place in a clear light the general principles of the subject, and its value is less apt to be obscured by the complexity of the material. It is understood, however, that the author contemplates a second volume, in which the higher developments will doubtless be treated. Without such a sequel the reader will be left unprovided with some of the most characteristic and important notions of the calculus.
Elementary Vector Analysis: With Application to Geometry and Physics.
By Dr. C. E. Weather-Burn. (Bell's Mathematical Series.) Pp. xxvii + 184. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1921.) 12s. net.
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Elementary Vector Analysis: With Application to Geometry and Physics . Nature 107, 744 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107744c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107744c0