Alexander Anderson (mathematician)
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Alexander Anderson (Template:Circa in Aberdeen – Template:Circa in Paris) was a Scottish mathematician.
LifeEdit
He was born in Aberdeen, possibly in 1582, according to a print which suggests he was aged 35 in 1617.<ref name=ws>Template:Cite DNB</ref> It is unknown where he was educated, but it is likely that he initially studied writing and philosophy (the "belles lettres") in his home city of Aberdeen.<ref name=gbd>Template:Cite book</ref>
He then went to the continent, and was a professor of mathematics in Paris by the start of the seventeenth century.<ref name=gbd/> There he published or edited, between the years 1612 and 1619, various geometric and algebraic tracts.Template:Sfn He described himself as having "more wisdom than riches" in the dedication of Vindiciae Archimedis (1616).<ref name=ws/>
He was first cousin of David Anderson of Finshaugh, a celebrated mathematician, and David Anderson's daughter was the mother of mathematician James Gregory.<ref name=ee>Template:Cite book</ref>
WorkEdit
He was selected by the executors of François Viète to revise and edit Viète's manuscript works. Viète died in 1603, and it is unclear if Anderson knew him, but his eminence was sufficient to attract the attention of the dead man's executors.<ref name=los>Template:Cite book</ref> Anderson corrected and expanded upon Viète's manuscripts, which extended known geometry to the new algebra, which used general symbols to represent quantities.<ref name=los/>
PublicationsEdit
The known works of Anderson amount to six thin quarto volumes, and as the last of them was published in 1619, it is probable that the author died soon after that year, but the precise date is unknown.Template:Sfn He wrote other works that have since been lost.<ref name=bdes/> From his last work it appears he wrote another piece, "A Treatise on the Mensuration of Solids,"<ref name=bdes>Template:Cite book</ref> and copies of two other works, Ex. Math. and Stereometria Triangulorum Sphæricorum, were in the possession of Sir Alexander Hume until the after the middle of the seventeenth century.<ref name=ws/>
- 1612: Supplementum Apollonii Redivivi<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- 1615: Ad Angularum Sectionem Analytica Theoremata F. Vieta
- 1615: Pro Zetetico Apolloniani<ref name="worldcat">Template:Cite book</ref>
- 1615: Francisci Vietae Fontenaeensis
- 1616: Vindiciae Archimedis<ref name="worldcat2">Template:Cite book</ref>
- 1619: Alexandri Andersoni Exercitationum Mathematicarum Decas Prima<ref name="worldcat3">Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Attribution:
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