Genesis
Professor Gibbs produced an 85-page outline of his treatment of vectors for use by his students and had sent a copy to Oliver Heaviside in 1888. In 1892 Heaviside, who was formulating his own vectorial system in the Transactions of the Royal Society, praised Gibbs' "little book", saying it "deserves to be well known". However, he also noted that it was "much too condensed for a first introduction to the subject".
On the occasion of the bicentennial of Yale University, a series of publications were to be issued to showcase Yale's role in the advancement of knowledge. Gibbs was authoring Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics for that series. Mindful of the demand for innovative university textbooks, the editor of the series, Professor Morris, wished to include also a volume dedicated to Gibbs's lectures on vectors, but Gibbs's time and attention were entirely absorbed by the Statistical Mechanics.
E. B. Wilson was then a new graduate student in mathematics. He had learned about quaternions from James Mills Peirce at Harvard, but Dean A. W. Phillips persuaded him to take Gibbs's course on vectors, which treated similar problems from a rather different perspective. After Wilson had completed the course, Morris approached him about the project of producing a textbook. Wilson wrote the book by expanding his own class notes, providing exercises, and consulting with others (including his father).
Read more about this topic: Vector Analysis
Famous quotes containing the word genesis:
“If only he would not pity us so much,
Weaken our fate, relieve us of woe both great
And small, a constant fellow of destiny,
A too, too human god, self-pity’s kin
And uncourageous genesis . . .”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
—Bible: Hebrew Genesis 1:29.
But in a later context, God told the disgraced Adam, “and thou shalt eat the herb of the field” (Genesis 3:18)
“Power is, in nature, the essential measure of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing and therefore self-relying soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)