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 3 Collections and/or Records:
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
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]
Item
Identifier: Coll-2911/9
Scope and Contents
Autograph letter signed from Colin Maclaurin addressed to James Stirling "at Leadhills", dated 12 May 1738, principally on fluxions ("I am persuaded many things are wanting in the inverse methods of fluxions especially in what relates to fluents that are not reduced and perhaps are not reduced to the logarithms or circle. I give a chapter on these, distinguish them into various orders, and shew easy constructions of lines by whose rectification they may be assigned"), citing the work of...
Dates:
12 May 1738
