Dates
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 2 Collections and/or Records:
Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/7
Scope and Contents
Autograph letter from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at Leadhills", dated 4 February 1737 [Old Style, i.e. 1738], comprising a secretarial copy of an English translation of a letter from Maupertuis to James Bradley, Paris 27 September 1737, announcing the return of the French expedition to Lapland, 1736-37, and describing in detail the findings of the expedition, with Maclaurin's autograph covering note to verso of conjugate leaf, with apostscript inviting Stirling to join a...
Dates:
4 February 1737 [Old Style, i.e. 1738]
Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/11
Scope and Contents
Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at Leadhills", dated 6 December 1740, discussing the French expedition to Peru ("Mr Short writes that an unlucky accident has happened to the French mathematicians in Peru. It seems they were shewing some French gallantry to the natives’ wives, who have murdered their servants, destroyed their instruments and burn’t their papers"), and Short's observation of the satellite of Venus before summarising "all that I have...
Dates:
6 December 1740
