The foundational aspects of Gauss's work on the hypergeometric, factorial and digamma functions (Q2457841)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
The foundational aspects of Gauss's work on the hypergeometric, factorial and digamma functions
scientific article

    Statements

    The foundational aspects of Gauss's work on the hypergeometric, factorial and digamma functions (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    23 October 2007
    0 references
    The development of the modern notion of a function was discussed by many historians of mathematics, with the problem of the vibrating string (and the development of functions via trigonometric functions) playing a major role. In this article, the author studies Gauss's work on special functions from this point of view. He explains in detail how Gauss's notion of functions (and related notions like limits, convergence etc.) differed from those used by 18th century mathematicians like Euler.
    0 references
    Gauss
    0 references
    hypergeometric function
    0 references
    digamma function
    0 references
    linit
    0 references
    convergence
    0 references

    Identifiers