Caspar Wessel ( Norwegian. Caspar Wessel ; 1745-1818) - Danish - Norwegian mathematician , a surveyor by profession. The author of the essay "On the analytical representation of directions" ( 1799 ), devoted to the theory of vectors on the plane and in space, in which the geometric representation of complex numbers was first given. For a century, Wessel's work remained unknown, and its results were rediscovered.
| Caspar Wessel | |
|---|---|
| Norwegian Caspar wessel | |
| Date of Birth | June 8, 1745 |
| Place of Birth | Vestby , Akershus , Norway |
| Date of death | March 25, 1818 (72 years old) |
| A place of death | Copenhagen , Denmark |
| A country | |
| Scientific field | maths |
| Alma mater | University of Copenhagen |
| Known as | Author "On the analytical presentation of directions" |
Content
- 1 Biography
- 2 List of terms associated with the Wessel name
- 3 books
- 4 Literature
- 5 Links
Biography
Wessel was born in Westby , Norway . In 1763, having completed high school, he went to Denmark for further studies. In 1778, he received a Candidatus juris degree. From 1794 he worked as an inspector (from 1798 as the Royal Inspector of Topogeodesy).
The mathematical aspects of geodesy led him to study the geometric meaning of complex numbers . His main work, Om directionens analytiske betegning / On the Analytical Representation of Directions , was published in 1799 by the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences and Literature . Since the publication was written in Danish, it went almost unnoticed, and the same results were later independently found by Jean Argan in 1806 and Karl Gauss in 1831 .
Caspar Wessel's priority in representing a complex number as a point on the complex plane is universally recognized today. His report was reprinted in French in 1899 , as well as in English in 1999 ( On the analytic representation of direction (ed. J. Lützen et al.).
Elder brother Johan Hermann Wessel is one of the main names in Danish-Norwegian literature.
List of Wessel-related terms
- Complex number
- Complex plane
Books
- Caspar Wessel. On the analytical presentation of directions = Om directionens analytiske betegning. - 1799.
Literature
- Vileitner G. History of mathematics from Descartes to the middle of the XIX century . - M .: GIFFL, 1966.
Links
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson . Wessel, Caspar (English) - biography in the MacTutor archive.