scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1154291

MaRDI QIDQ4389715zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors M. M. Korentsova

Publication date 19 May 1998

zbMATH Keywords

ellipsoidfluxionsgeometryshape of the Earth

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography (01-02) History of mathematics in the 18th century (01A50) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70)

Review text

There are seven chapters: life (18 pages), Newton's fluxional calculus (14), mathematical analysis (17), algebra (24), the Principia (12), the equilibrium shape of the earth (12), and projective geometry (20). There are 109 listed references. Letters to and from Maclaurin occupy 500 pages of typescript in \textit{S. Mills}'s The collected letters of Colin Maclaurin. Nantwich: Shiva Publishing Limited (1982; Zbl 0516.01024); Maclaurin's book on fluxions occupies two large quarto volumes each of 200 pages with many plates. Hence this book compresses severely, at times so severely that the reviewer cannot recognize the subject. To concentrate on the chapter on fluxions, this chapter lacks the detailed immediacy of \textit{J. Hofmann}'s book Leibniz in Paris, 1672--1676. His Growth to Mathematical Maturity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1974; Zbl 0281.01004). It lacks details on what the fluxional calculus was, due in part to the compression-ratio for this chapter alone. But it also misses the points made in \textit{H. Bos} [Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 14, 1--90 (1974; Zbl 0291.01016)], where the difference between Newton's fluxions and Leibniz's differentials is made clear. In the reviewer's opinion, the author does not keep a clear focus on Maclaurin and his work, and so leads to incomplete understanding. Similar remarks could be made about the other chapters. Overall it gives an impression of what Maclaurin did and what was done in his time.

Recommendations

• Space and time in Maclaurin: the case of the shape of the Earth
• Was Newton's Calculus a dead end? The continental influence of Maclaurin's `Treatise of fluxions'
• MacLaurin's physical dissertations
• Uma história das fluxões às derivadas na obra de Colin MacLaurin

Cited in

(10)

• Colin Maclaurin and Glendaruel
• Space and time in Maclaurin: the case of the shape of the Earth
• Colin Maclaurin or the mathematical obstinacy of a Newtonian
• Was Newton's Calculus a dead end? The continental influence of Maclaurin's `Treatise of fluxions'
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3946075 (Why is no real title available?)
• George Berkeley 1685-1753
• The \textit{De linearum} by MacLaurin: between Newton and Poncelet
• Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746): a Newtonian between theory and practice
• Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746) and his contemporaries on wind and water: the local and the universal
• MacLaurin's physical dissertations

This page was built for publication:

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4389715)