Florian Cajori

Florian Cajori (February 28, 1859 – August 14[1][2] or 15,[3] 1930) was a Swiss-American historian of mathematics.

"Cajori" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Cajori (crater).
Florian Cajori
Florian Cajori at Colorado College
Born(1859-02-28)28 February 1859
St. Aignan near Thusis,[1] Graubünden, Switzerland
Died14 August 1930(1930-08-14) (aged 71)
Berkeley, United States
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics

Biography

Florian Cajori was born in Zillis,Switzerland, and was the son of Georg Cajori and Catherine Camenisch. He attended schools first in Zillis and later in Chur. In 1875, Florian Cajori emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen, and attended the State Normal school in Whitewater, Wisconsin. After graduating in 1878, he taught in a country school, and then later began studying mathematics at University of Wisconsin–Madison.[4]

In 1883, Cajori received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, briefly attended Johns Hopkins University for 8 months in between degrees.[5] He taught for a few years at Tulane University, before being appointed as professor of applied mathematics there in 1887. He was then driven north by tuberculosis. He founded the Colorado College Scientific Society and taught at Colorado College where he held the chair in physics from 1889 to 1898 and the chair in mathematics from 1898 to 1918. He was the position Dean of the engineering department.[6] While at Colorado, he received his doctorate from Tulane in 1894, and married Elizabeth G. Edwards in 1890 and had one son.[4]

Cajori's A History of Mathematics (1894) was the first popular presentation of the history of mathematics in the United States.[4] Based upon his reputation in the history of mathematics (even today his 1928–1929 History of Mathematical Notations has been described as "unsurpassed")[7] he was appointed in 1918 to the first history of mathematics chair in the U.S, created especially for him, at the University of California, Berkeley. He remained in Berkeley, California until his death in 1930. Cajori did no original mathematical research unrelated to the history of mathematics.[4] In addition to his numerous books, he also contributed highly recognized and popular historical articles to the American Mathematical Monthly.[6] His last work was a revision of Andrew Motte's 1729 translation of Newton's Principia, vol.1 The Motion of Bodies, but he died before it was completed. The work was finished by R.T. Crawford of Berkeley, California.

Societies and honors
  • 1917–1918, Mathematical Association of America president
  • 1923, American Association for the Advancement of Science vice-president
  • 1924, Invited Speaker of the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1924 in Toronto[8][9]
  • 1924–1925, History of Science Society vice-president
  • 1929–1930, Comité International d'Histoire des Sciences vice-president
  • The Cajori crater on the Moon was named in his honour

Publications

Books

Articles
  • 1913: "History of the Exponential and Logarithmic Concepts", American Mathematical Monthly 20:
    • Page 5 From Napier to Leibniz and John Bernoulli I, 1614 — 1712
    • Page 35 The Modern Exponential Notation (continued)
    • Page 75 : The Creation of a Theory of Logarithms of Complex Numbers by Euler, 1747 — 1749
    • Page 107 : From Euler to Wessel and Argand, 1749 — 1800, Barren discussion.
    • Page 148: Generalizations and refinements effected during the nineteenth century : Graphic representation
    • Page 173: Generalizations and refinements effected during the nineteenth century (2)
    • Page 205: Generalizations and refinements effected during the nineteenth century (3)

These seven installments of the article are available through the Early Content program of Jstor.

  • 1923: "The History of Notations of the Calculus." Annals of Mathematics, 2nd Ser., Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 1–46

Notes and references
  1. Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. Raymond Clare Archibald (January 1932). "Florian Cajori 1859-1930". Isis. 17 (2): 384–407. doi:10.1086/346660.
  3. Florian Cajori (ed.), Sir Isaac Newton – Principia, Vol. 1, University of California Press, 1962, p. ix.
  4. O'Connor and Robertson, J. J. and E. F. "Florian Cajori". The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of S. Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  5. UW Madison class album, 1883
  6. "Florian Cajori, 1917 MAA President". MAA Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  7. Colorado College page Archived 2010-12-04 at the Wayback Machine on Florian Cajori.
  8. Cajoru, Florian. "Uniformity of mathematical notations—retrospect and prospect". In: Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, August 11–16. 1924. vol. 2. pp. 929–936.
  9. Cajori, Florian. "Past struggles between symbolists and rhetoricians in mathematical publications". In: Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, August 11–16. 1924. vol. 2. pp. 937–942.
  10. Smith, David Eugene (1894). "Review: A history of mathematics by F. Cajori" (PDF). Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 3 (8): 190–197. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1894-00207-9.
  11. Smith, David Eugene (1921). "Review: Florian Cajori, A History of the Conceptions of Limits and Fluxions in Great Britain from Newton to Woodhouse". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 (9–10): 468–470. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1921-03475-6.
  12. Smith, David Eugene (1934). "Cajori's Edition of Newton's Principia". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 40 (11): 781–783. doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1934-05975-5.
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