Hamilton, Rodrigues, Gauss, quaternions, and rotations: a historical reassessment (Q1943532)

It was in 1843, when William Rowan Hamilton first had the idea of quaternions: he was able to present the multiplication rules. But Hamilton was not familiar with the relation between rotations and quaternions. In two chapters, the author presents a modern deduction of the rotations and their relation with quaternions. The larger chapter is devoted to historical notes, here the names and contributions of Euler, Rodrigues, Gauss and Cayley are mentioned. All is given in modern terminology and not in the original writing. The author claims that the priority of the relationship of rotations and quaternions is due to Gauss and not to Rodrigues.