A Memoir on the Quintic Equation

Collection

Identifier: SC MS 0131

Staff Only

This manuscript consists of several drafts of this paper, A Report on the Quintic.

Writings done by Professor Stephen Weinthrob. More information about this collection can be found at: http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/remain/03500

Dates

1894

Creator

Cayley, Arthur, 1821-1895 (Person)

Physical Description

28 leaves : ill. ; 46 cm.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Collection housed remotely. Users need to contact 24 hours in advance.

Extent

28 leaves : ill. ; 46 cm.

Additional Description

Overview

One of Cayley's last papers, published in 1894, dealt with the quintic: Arthur Cayley, on the sextic resolvent equations of Jacobi and Kronecker, Journal èfèür die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik, CXIII (1894), 42-49. Moreover, he was preparing a paper, entitled A Report on the Quintic, which was incomplete at the time of his death. This manuscript consists of several drafts of this paper. In one of these drafts, he refers to the paper: On the Sextic Resolvent Equations.

Biographical / Historical

Arthur Cayley (16 August 1821-26 January 1895) was one of the preeminent British mathematicians of the 19th century. His mathematical talent was recognized early. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a student in 1838, at the age of 17, and upon his graduation he became a fellow at Trinity College. Upon the end of this fellowship Cayley pursued a career as a lawyer, but his first love was always for mathematics. In 1863 he was appointed the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held until his death at the age of 73.