Algebra: Creating New Mathematical Entities in Victorian Britain

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Place: Room 103, Mendel Science Center, Villanova University

Abstract: Analytic geometry and mathematical physics may have interested a majority of mathematicians in Victorian Britain, but algebra also served to focus their mathematical attention. In the century’s first half, algebraic work centered on the development of the so-called “symbolical algebra” and the creation of new algebras, while in its second, the theory of invariants dominated and the abstract theory of groups witnessed key developments. Underlying much of this research was the philosophical question of how free mathematicians were to create new mathematical entities. The Victorian British response to that question was ultimately, “quite.”