Re: History of Mathematics ~ Calculus

Thomas wrote:

I am doing research concerning the development of
rigor in calculus; however, I am having trouble finding
translated material from the lesser known mathematicians
who contributed to its development. Some of the
mathematicians I am attempting to find original
material on are: Servois, Bolzano, Legendre, Arbogast,
Ampere, etc. Does anyone know of a good database,
or journal that has translated material from these
mathematicians?

I'd hardly call Bolzano or Legendre "lesser mathematicians"
for this topic, by the way.

For Bolzano, you can look at Steve Russ's translation
"The Mathematical Works of Bernard Bolzano", Oxford Univ.
Press, 2004 (ISBN 0198539304) and the posthumous English
translations of some of Vojtech Jarnik's very penetrating
1920s papers on Bolzano's mathematics in "Bolzano and
the Foundations of Mathematical Analysis", Society of
Czechoslovak Mathematicians and Physicists, 1981.

For Legendre, a good place to begin is Judith V. Grabiner's
book "The Calculus as Algebra: J.-L. Lagrange, 1736-1813",
Garland Publishing, 1990.

For Ampere, I know of a number of references (at home,
however, where I'm not), but since he's known for
originating the limit of difference quotients definition
of the derivative (at least, if someone is to get credit)
and for trying to prove (essentially) that continuous
functions on a bounded interval can have at most finitely
many points of non-differentiability (supposedly; opinions
vary among those who have studied his work in the correct
historical context), you can find secondary literature for
Ampere's contributions by looking at historical papers/books
on the early history of fractals, nowhere differentiable
continuous functions, etc.

You might also want to search the sci.math archives.
Just speaking for myself, I've posted quite a number
of references and comments about variouis historical
issues in real analysis (e.g. see the two posts below),
and I'm sure others have posted things that might be
of use to you.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.math/msg/2fbd2465cccaff64
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.math/msg/133302a6f13f30a6

Dave L. Renfro
.

Relevant Pages

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