ELEMENTS OF DYNAMIC PART I. KINEMATIC.

Abstract

THOUGH this preliminary volume contains only a small instalment of the subject, the mode of treatment to be adopted by Prof. Clifford is made quite obvious. It is a sign of these times of real advance, and will cause not only much fear and trembling among the crammers but also perhaps very legitimate trepidation among the august body of Mathematical Moderators and Examiners. For, although (so far as we have seen) the word quaternion is not once mentioned in the book, the analysis is in great part purely quaternionic. And it is not easy to see what arguments could now be brought forward to justify the rejection of examination-answers given in the language of quaternions—especially since in Cambridge (which may claim to lay down the law on such matters) Trilinear Coordinates, Determinants, and other similar methods were long allowed to pass unchallenged before they obtained formal recognition from the Board of Mathematical Studies.

Elements of Dynamic. Part I. Kinematic.

By W. K. Clifford. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1878.)