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The controversy between Colin MacLaurin and George Campbell over complex roots, 1728–1729

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Bibliography

  1. George Campbell, 1728: ‘A Method for determining the Number of impossible Roots in adfected Equations’, Phil. Trans., 35 (1727–1728), 515–531.

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  2. George Campbell, 1729: Remarks on A Paper published by Mr. MacLaurin, in the Philosophical Transactions for the Month of May, 1729 (Edinburgh, 1729).

  3. Colin MacLaurin, 1726: ‘A Letter from Mr. Colin Mac Laurin, Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh, and F.R.S. to Martin Folkes, Esq; Pr. R.S. concerning Æquations with impossible Roots’, Phil. Trans., 34 (1726–1727), 104–112.

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  4. Colin MacLaurin, 1729: ‘A second Letter from Mr. Colin Mc Laurin, Professor of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh and F.R.S. to Martin Folkes, Esq; concerning the Roots of Equations, with the Demonstration of other Rules in Algebra; being the Continuation of the Letter published in the Philosophical Transactions, N° 394’, Phil. Trans., 36 (1729–1730), 59–96.

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  5. Colin MacLaurin, Defence: A Defence of the Letter Published in the Philosophical Transactions for March and April 1729. Concerning the Impossible Roots of Equations; in a Letter from the Author, to a Friend at London (Edinburgh, 1730); this is reprinted in [6].

  6. S. Mills, The Collected Letters of Colin MacLaurin (Nantwich, Cheshire, 1982).

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  7. C. Tweedie, James Stirling, A Sketch of His Life and Works along with his Scientific Correspondence (Oxford, 1922).

  8. D. T. Whiteside, The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton, V: 1683–1684 (Cambridge, 1972).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, England

    Stella Mills

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  1. Stella Mills
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Communicated by D. T. Whiteside

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Mills, S. The controversy between Colin MacLaurin and George Campbell over complex roots, 1728–1729. Arch. Rational Mech. 28, 149–164 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00327700

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00327700

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