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William Whewell, D. D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
William Whewell D D Master of Trinity College Cambridge Author:Isaac Todhunter Subtitle: An Account of His Writings With Selections From His Literary and Scientific Correspondence General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1876 Original Publisher: Macmillan and co. Subjects: Mathematicians Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos ... more »or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO MECHANICS. In the year 1819, Mr Whewell first appeared as an author by the publication of his work entitled An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics; this forms an octavo volume; the Title, Preface, and Contents occupying xxii pages, and the text 346 pages, besides two pages of Errata. The treatise may be considered as one which, in conjunction with the publications of Peacock and Herschel, introduced the continental mathematics, in order to replace the system of fluxions which had so long prevailed at Cambridge. A copious account both of the elementary and the higher parts of Statics is given, and the Differential and Integral Calculus are very freely used. In Dynamics only the elementary parts are treated. In the notice of Dr Whewell published by the Royal Astronomical Society, the following opinion is pronounced on the treatise: " It was a work of great value, strikingly logical and accurate. It is considered by one of our most eminent living mathematicians to have been very far in advance of any then existing text-book in the clearness and correctness of the treatment of bodies in contact, and in the precision with which the assumptions involved in the laws of motion and the composition of forces are stated and illustrated." Sir John Herschel quotes nearly the whole of this opinion of the work, which he assigns to " one excellently qualified to judge of its merits." The treatise on Mechanics passed th...« less