| Title:
|
Caspar Wessel (1745-1818). Surveyor and Mathematician. |
| Type:
|
Article in proceedingsArticle in proceedings |
| Participant(s):
|
Technical University of Denmark
Email:
Forfatter:
Johansen, Nils Voje
Univ. of Oslo - Department of Mathematics
|
| Abstract:
|
This is a biography. It focus on Caspar Wessel's work as surveyor
under the auspices of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and
Letters, in particular on some of his theoretical investigations
of geodesy that lead him to use complex numbers to represent
directions in a plane at least as early as 1787. In 1797 his
mathematical paper "On the Analytical Representation of Direction.
An Attempt Applied Chiefly to Solving Plane and Spherical
Polygons" (in Danish) was accepted for publication in the
Collected Papers of the Academy. The articleis today recognised as
the first to contain the geometrical interpretation of the complex
numbers and their rules of composition. |
| Published:
|
part of: Caspar Wessel. On the Analytical Representation of
Direction., 1999, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Copenhagen |
| Presented at:
|
Wessel Symposium, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and
Letters, Copenhagen |
|