A History of Vector Analysis
A History of Vector Analysis (1967) is a book on the history of vector analysis by Michael J. Crowe, originally published by the University of Notre Dame Press. As a scholarly treatment of a reformation in technical communication, the text is a contribution to the history of science. In 2002, Crowe gave a talk[1] summarizing the book, including an entertaining introduction in which he covered its publication history and related the award of a Jean Scott prize of $4000. Crowe had entered the book in a competition for "a study on the history of complex and hypercomplex numbers" twenty-five years after his book was first published.
Author
Michael J. Crowe
English
Geometry
1967
United states
Summary of reviews[edit]
There were significant reviews given near the time of original publication. Stanley Goldberg[3] wrote "The polemics on both sides make very rich reading, especially when they are spiced with the sarcastic wit of a Heaviside, and the fervent, almost religious railing of a Tait." Morris Kline begins his 1969 review[4] with "Since historical publications on modern developments are rare, this book is welcome." and ends with "the subtitle [,The Evolution of the Idea of a Vectorial System,] is a better description of the contents than the title proper." Then William C. Waterhouse—picking up where Kline's review left off—writes in 1972 "Crowe's book on vector analysis seems a little anemic in comparison, perhaps because its title is misleading. ... [Crowe] does succeed in his goal of tracing the genealogy of the 3-space system, concluding that it was developed out of quaternions by physicists."[5]
Karin Reich wrote that Arnold Sommerfeld's name was missing from the book.[6] As assistant to Felix Klein, Sommerfeld was assigned the project of unifying vector concepts and notations for Klein's encyclopedia.
In 2003 Sandro Caparrini challenged Crowe’s conclusions by noting that "geometrical representations of forces and velocities by means of directed line segments...was already fairly well known by the middle of the eighteenth century" in his essay "Early Theories of Vectors".[7] Caparrini cites several sources, in particular Gaetano Giorgini (1795 — 1874) and his appreciation in an 1830 article[8] by Michel Chasles. Caparrini goes on to indicate that moments of forces and angular velocities were recognized as vectorial entities in the second half of the eighteenth century.