Boole Sentence Examples
Being especially interested in mathematical science, the father gave his son his first lessons; but the extraordinary mathematical powers of George Boole did not manifest themselves in early life.
To the public Boole was known only as the author of numerous abstruse papers on mathematical topics, and of three or four distinct publications which have become standard works.
To the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and its successor, the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, Boole contributed in all twenty-two articles.
The works of Boole are thus contained in about fifty scattered articles and a few separate publications.
Only two systematic treatises on mathematical subjects were completed by Boole during his lifetime.
Boole was one of the most eminent of those who perceived that the symbols of operation could be separated from those of quantity and treated as distinct objects of calculation.
During the last few years of his life Boole was constantly engaged in extending his researches with the object of producing a second edition of his Differential Equations much more complete than the first edition; and part of his last vacation was spent in the libraries of the Royal Society and the British Museum.
Thus, if x= horned and y = sheep, then the successive acts of election represented by x and y, if performed on unity, give the whole of the class horned sheep. Boole showed that elective symbols of this kind obey the same primary laws of combination as algebraical symbols, whence it followed that they could be added, subtracted, multiplied and even divided, almost exactly in the same manner as numbers.
Given any propositions involving any number of terms, Boole showed how, by the purely symbolic treatment of the premises, to draw any conclusion logically contained in those premises.
The personal character of Boole inspired all his friends with the deepest esteem.
AdvertisementThus what have been called seminvariants are not all of them invariants for the general substitution, but are invariants for the particular substitution xl = X11 + J-s12, X 2 = 112 Again, in plane geometry, the most general equations of substitution which change from old axes inclined at w to new axes inclined at w' =13 - a, and inclined at angles a, l3 to the old axis of x, without change of origin, are x-sin(wa)X+sin(w -/3)Y sin w sin ' _sin ax y sin w a transformation of modulus sin w' sin w' The theory of invariants originated in the discussion, by George Boole, of this system so important in geometry.
The only known type of algebra which does not contain arithmetical elements is substantially due to George Boole.
In 1864 he published a small volume, entitled Pure Logic; or, the Logic of Quality apart from Quantity, which was based on Boole's system of logic, but freed from what he considered the false mathematical dress of that system.
In the Boole of Enoch " the four great archangels" are Michael, Uriel, Suriel or Raphael, and Gabriel, who is set over "all the powers" and shares the work of intercession.
But it may be doubted whether De Morgan's own system, "horrent with mysterious spiculae," as Hamilton aptly described it, is fitted to exhibit the real analogy between quantitative and qualitative reasoning, which is rather to be sought in the logical works of Boole.
AdvertisementAlmost the only changes which can be called events are his successful establishment of a school at Lincoln, its removal to Waddington, his appointment in 1849 as professor of mathematics in the Queen's College at Cork, and his marriage in 1855 to Miss Mary Everest, who, as Mrs Boole, afterwards wrote several useful educational works on her husband's principles.
A long list of Boole's memoirs and detached papers, both on logical and mathematical topics, will be found in the Catalogue of Scientific Memoirs published by the Royal Society, and in the supplementary volume on Differential Equations, edited by Isaac Todhunter.
These treatises are valuable contributions to the important branches of mathematics in question, and Boole, in composing them, seems to have combined elementary exposition with the profound investigation of the philosophy of the subject in a manner hardly admitting of improvement.
In the 16th and 17th chapters of the Differential Equations we find, for instance, a lucid account of the general symbolic method, the bold and skilful employment of which led to Boole's chief discoveries, and of a general method in analysis, originally described in his famous memoir printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1844.
With the exception of Augustus de Morgan, Boole was probably the first English mathematician since the time of John Wallis who had also written upon logic. His novel views of logical method were due to the same profound confidence in symbolic reasoning to which he had successfully trusted in mathematical investigation.
AdvertisementSpeculations concerning a calculus of reasoning had at different times occupied Boole's thoughts, but it was not till the spring of 1847 that he put his ideas into the pamphlet called Mathematical Analysis of Logic. Boole afterwards regarded this as a hasty and imperfect exposition of his logical system, and he desired that his much larger work, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities (1854), should alone be considered as containing a mature statement of his views.
By unity Boole denoted the universe of thinkable objects; literal symbols, such as x, y, z, v, u, &c., were used with the elective meaning attaching to common adjectives and substantives.
Though Boole published little except his mathematical and logical works, his acquaintance with general literature was wide and deep. Dante was his favourite poet, and he preferred the Paradiso to the Inferno.