Best of
Mathematics

1765

Elements of Algebra


Leonhard Euler - 1765
    This edition of Euler's classic, published in 1822, is an English translation which includes notes added by Euler's tutor, Johann Bernoulli, and additions by Joseph-Louis Lagrange, both giants in eighteenth-century mathematics, as well as a short biography of Euler. Part 1 begins with elementary mathematics of determinate quantities and includes four sections on simple calculations (adding, subtracting, division, multiplication), and then progresses to compound calculations (fractions), ratios and proportions and algebraic equations. Part 2 consists of 15 chapters on analyses of indeterminate quantities. Here, Euler shows the reader several ways to solve polynomial equations up to the fourth degree. This landmark book showed students the beauty of mathematics, and more significantly, how to do it.