Editing Umbral calculus (section)

{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Short description|Historical term in mathematics}}
The term '''umbral calculus''' has two related but distinct meanings. 

In [[mathematics]], before the 1970s, umbral calculus referred to the surprising similarity between seemingly unrelated [[polynomial equation]]s and certain shadowy techniques used to prove them. These techniques were introduced in 1861 by [[John Blissard]] and are sometimes called '''Blissard's symbolic method'''.<ref>*{{cite journal | last1=Blissard | first1=John | title=Theory of generic equations | url=http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?PPN600494829_0004 | year=1861 | journal=The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics | volume=4 | pages=279–305}}</ref> They are often attributed to [[Édouard Lucas]] (or [[James Joseph Sylvester]]), who used the technique extensively.<ref>E. T. Bell, "The History of Blissard's Symbolic Method, with a Sketch of its Inventor's Life", ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' '''45''':7 (1938), pp. 414–421.</ref> The use of shadowy techniques was put on a solid mathematical footing starting in the 1970s, and the resulting mathematical theory is also referred to as "umbral calculus".