Abstract
WE have read Prof. Weld's book with much interest, for though there are few, if any, novel results brought forward, he has certainly attained the goal he set before himself, and has developed the theory in a very simple manner. Some of the methods he has employed are new to us. The greater part of the work requires little beyond an intimate acquaintance with the principles of algebra as given in the ordinary school text-books. To confine the treatment within very moderate limits, there is no application of determinants to analytical geometry, but many of the more important algebraical applications find a place. After treating with sufficient detail of the origin and notation of determinants, our author gives a general definition of them, and enumerates and proves the more useful of their properties, and then touches lightly upon their applications to elementary algebra, i.e. to matrices and Sylvester's and Euler's methods of elimination. In Chapter vi. he briefly discusses the multiplication of determinants and reciprocal determinants. The last three chapters give a brief account of special forms, and of linear transformation. The text is very clearly printed, and we have detected but few trivial errors. There is a good store of examples, some of which appear to us to be rather “stiff.” Due acknowledgment is made in the preface to the sources from which results have been derived.
A Short Course in the Theory of Determinants.
By L. G. Weld. (London: Macmillan, 1893.)
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A Short Course in the Theory of Determinants. Nature 48, 612 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/048612c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/048612c0