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MacLaurin, Colin, 1698-1746 (mathematician)

 Person

Staff Only

Dates

  • Existence: 1698 - 1746

Biography

Colin Maclaurin, born in Kilmodan, Argyll, was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. The 'Maclaurin series', a special case of the 'Taylor series', is named after him.

At the age of eleven, Colin Maclaurin entered the University of Glasgow, graduating with the degree of MA three years later with a thesis on the Power of Gravity. He remained at Glasgow to study divinity until he was 19, when he was elected Professor of Mathematics at the Marischal College in the University of Aberdeen.

Maclaurin taught a 3-year course from elementary to advanced mathematics, beginning with arithmetic and Euclid, and working up to the Principia and the method of fluxions. He also taught experimental philosophy, surveying, fortification, geography, theory of gunnery, astronomy, and optics. He wrote his A Treatise of Algebra at this time and for use in his courses, although it did not appear in print until after his death.

Found in 9 Collections and/or Records:

Autograph letter signed by Colin Maclaurin containing a detailed correction of an earlier mathematical demonstration, 20 May 1738

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/10
Scope and Contents Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at Leadhills", dated 20 May 1738, a detailed correction of an earlier mathematical demonstration, presumably that given in the previous letter ("When I spoke of concentric surfaces infinitely near I restricted only that I might distinguish the parts more properly into such as were convex and concave towards the particle"), referring to Cotes's theorems, encouraging Stirling's work on the figure of the earth ("I wish...
Dates: 20 May 1738
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed by Colin Maclaurin on the dispute with George Campbell, 6 November 1729

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/5
Scope and Contents

Autograph letter from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at the Academy in Little Tower Street, London", dated 6 november 1729, on the dispute with Campbell ("I wonder I had no message by a good hand from Mr Campbell before he printed these silly reports … He has misrepresented my paper much and found things in it I never asserted").

Dates: 6 November 1729
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin, on his intention to publish a piece on the collision of bodies, 7 December 1728

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/3
Scope and Contents Autograph letter signed by Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at the Academy in little Tower Street", on Maclaurin's intention to publish a piece on the collision of bodies ("I wish I had Mr Graham's Experiment at full length with Liberty to insert it"), his response to the nascent priority dispute with George Campbell (his "design of giving a Treatise of Algebra", his "method of demonstrating that [i.e. Newton’s] rule by the Limits", by which "too Idemonstrate a Theorem in y[our?]...
Dates: 7 December 1728
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin on the dispute with Campbell, undated [probably 1729]

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/2
Scope and Contents

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling, undated [probably 1729], on the dispute with George Campbell regarding impossible roots ("I send you with this letter my answer to Mr George Campbell which I publish with regret being so far from delighting in such a difference that I have the greatest dislike at a publick dispute of this Nature"), also mentioning a debt of six guineas to Abraham de Moivre.

Dates: undated [probably 1729]
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin on the priority dispute with Campbell regarding impossible roots, 1 May 1729

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/4
Scope and Contents

Autograph letter from Colin Maclaurin to addressed to James Stirling "at the Academy in Little Tower Street, London", dated 1 May 1729, on the priority dispute with Campbell regarding impossible roots ("I have sent Mr Folkes the remainder of my paper … I am satisfied that any person who will read this paper and compare it with Mr Campbell’s will do me justice … The proposition I sent you in my last letter is the foundation of all my Theorems about the impossible Roots)".

Dates: 1 May 1729
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin on the priority dispute with George Campbell over the impossible roots of equations, 11 February 1728 [Old Style, i.e. 1729]

 Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/1
Scope and Contents Autograph letter from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at the Academy in Little Tower Street, London", dated Edinburgh, 11 February 1728 [Old Style, which means the year is actually 1729], expressing agitation regarding the replication of his work on the "impossible roots" in a paper by George Campbell in the Philosophical Transactions for October, asserting his own claim to priority, and providing demonstrations (including one...
Dates: 11 February 1728 [Old Style, i.e. 1729]
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

Autograph letters from Colin Maclaurin to James Stirling

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-2911
Scope and Contents This collection consists of eleven letters from Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin addressed to his fellow mathematician James Stirling "at the Academy in Little Tower Street", London, or "at Leadhills". The correspondence is dated from 1728 to 1740, and discusses the 1728-9 controversy between Colin MacLaurin and George Campbell over complex roots, as well as other contemporary mathematical and scientific subjects. The letters Coll-2911/6, 7, 10 are annotated with mathematical...
Dates: 1728-1740
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections

Colin Campbell Collection

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-38
Scope and Contents The Colin Campbell Collection contains Gaelic verse, mainly songs; sermon notes and scripture expositions, the earliest being 1703; manuscript treatises; Colin Campbell correspondence, the earliest being 1664; miscellaneous manuscripts including domestic accounts, medical papers, minutes etc; notebooks, accounts, letters and scraps of Patrick Campbell of Achnaba; letters from mathematicians to Colin Campbell, and mathematical papers; a body of accounts, the earliest being 1553; a body of...
Dates: 1553-1836
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections

Student manuscript copy of Colin MacLaurin's Treatise of Algebra

 Fonds
Identifier: Coll-1812
Content Description These are manuscript lecture notes on algebra... notes of 'A Treatise of Algebra' by Colin MacLaurin. Although the writer is unknown (a student?), the ms volume bears a label... an armorial Melville bookplate... possibly that of Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville.The volume is noted...: 'A Treatise of Algebra by Mr McLaurin Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh. part 1. 1735'.The last five pages are 'Concerning the Art of Measuring Land'....
Dates: 1735
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections

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