Essai sur la Théorie des Nombres

The second edition (1808) of Legendre's highly influential Essai sur la théorie des nombres.

Adrien Marie Legendre (Author)

9781108001731, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

544 pages
24.4 x 17 x 2.8 cm, 0.86 kg

Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752–1833), one of the great French mathematicians active in the Revolutionary period, made important contributions to number theory, statistics, mathematical analysis and algebra. He taught at the École Militaire, where he was a colleague of Laplace, and made his name with a paper on the trajectory of projectiles which won a prize of the Berlin Academy in 1782, and brought him to the attention of Lagrange. In 1794 he published Eléments de géométrie, which remained a textbook for over 100 years. The first edition of his Essai sur la théorie des nombres was published in 1798, and the much improved second edition, which is offered here, in 1808. In it Legendre had taken account of criticism by Gauss of the mathematical proofs in the first edition, though he was bitter at the manner in which his younger rival had claimed credit for some of his solutions.

Préface
Introduction
Part I. Exposition de diverses méthodes et propositions relatives à l'analyse indéterminée
Part II. Propriétés générales des nombres
Part III. Théorie des nombres considérés comme décomposables en trois carrés
Part IV. Méthodes et recherches diverses
Part V. Usage de l'analyse indéterminée dans la résolution de l'équation
Tables.

Subject Areas: Mathematics [PB]