Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Algebra of Coplanar Vectors and Trigonometry
Vectors and Trigonometry. De Morgan says in his Preface, The term Double Algebra has not yet obtained currency, and I think the same may still be said. I have therefore ventured to use the longer term, the Algebra of Coplanar Vectors, as expressing more explicitly the extent and s00pe of the Algebra here developed. The complete treatment of vectors, not restricted to lie in one plane, has been shown in the Quaternions of Sir W. R. Hamilton, the Triple Algebra of De Morgan, the Ausdehnungslehre of Grassmann, and some other developments of Algebra, to require an Algebra differing in some of its laws from those of ordinary Algebra.
As the treatment of the subject in this work is somewhat novel, at any rate in the order of its development, a short summary of the successive chapters, calling attention to the salient points in each, will probably be found useful to the reader.
The Introduction contains a short summary of the principles and laws of ordinary Algebra, as founded on the notion of Number together with that of opposite senses, in which therefore the literal symbols denote scalar, that is, positive or negative numerical quantities. It is shown that number may here be regarded not simply as the discrete number pertaining to quantities commensurable with a supposed unit, but as number in the higher sense of Ratio (or Continuous Number as it may be termed) as defined by Euclid, in which the distinction of com mensurable and incommensurable ceases to be relevant.
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