St Andrews Maths History Errata
These are errors I found in the St Andrews History of Mathematics MacTutor pages. I sent many of the corrections to the contact address on the page but got no reply since once in 2021, so I'm listing them here.
One of the problems with the documents is that the writer tends to include meaningless phrases such as "it is interesting to note that" or "It is worth remarking that". These are quite common in mathematical texts to introduce some idea, but in non-technical text they sound very silly because presumably the writer would not have deliberately noted uninteresting things, or remarked on worthless topics. I've added corrections for excessively verbose phrasing with this colour.
Campanus of Novara
“Finally we should mentions Campanus's contributions to astrology.” should be “mention”
“made Campanus one of his chaplains He also made him Rector” should be “made Campanus one of his chaplains. He also made him Rector” (Missing punctuation)
Constantin Carathéodory
“began to become” should be “became”
“soon others were appointed at assist Carathéodory” should be “to assist”
“he had been purchased for the science departments” should be “he had purchased”
“The World War II” should be “World War II”
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac
“went on the became” should be “went on to become”
The article claims "In 1930 Dirac published The principles of Quantum Mechanics and for this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933". However, obviously Nobel prizes are not awarded for textbooks. Details of Dirac's Nobel prize may be found at nobelprize.org.
Euclid of Alexandria
Verbosity: “It is worth remarking that Itard”
Suggested replacement: “Itard”
Leonhard Euler
“Leonard” should be “Leonhard”
Verbosity: “when he left St Petersburg to return to Basel in 1733 it was Euler who was appointed to this senior chair of mathematics”
Suggested replacement: “when he left St Petersburg to return to Basel in 1733 Euler was appointed to this senior chair of mathematics”
(Nobody else is mentioned as being in contention for the senior chair
in the article, so "it was Euler" doesn't make sense.)
Mathematicians Of The Day 6th September
The quote is missing.
Marie Gernet
“for two year” should be “for two years”
William Rowan Hamilton
Verbosity: “The year 1834 was the one in which Hamilton and Helen had a son, William Edwin”
Suggested replacement: “In 1834 Hamilton and Helen had a son, William Edwin”
Kiyosi Ito
“the19th” should be “the 19th” (Missing space)
“wonderful description mathematical beauty” should be “wonderful description of mathematical beauty” (missing "of")
Joseph Liouville
The biography omits mention of "Liouville's Theorem" in complex analysis that an entire bounded function must be constant. Although apparently this theorem was first proved by Cauchy rather than Liouville, one would expect to see it mentioned at least. It is also not mentioned in the biography of Cauchy.
Emmy Amalie Noether
“but accused of anti-Soviet acts he was sentenced to death and shot” should be “but, accused of anti-Soviet acts, he was sentenced to death and shot” (Missing commas make this difficult to read)
Verbosity: “It is worth noting at this point that the Nöther iron-wholesaling business remained a family firm for exactly one hundred years”
Suggested replacement: “The Nöther iron-wholesaling business remained a family firm for exactly one hundred years”
Ramiro Lodovico Rampinelli
“of their of their” should be “of their”
Verbosity: “It is worth commenting at this point that Rampinelli would become an outstanding teacher of mathematics so it is interesting to consider whether his own difficulties in his education were actually a positive influence on his later abilities as a teacher.”
Suggested replacement: “Rampinelli would become an outstanding teacher of mathematics so it is interesting to consider whether his own difficulties in his education were actually a positive influence on his later abilities as a teacher.”
“In January 1741 moved” should be “In January 1741 Rampinelli moved” (Subject is missing)
Walter Rudin
“permission to travel to Avignon were his parents and sister were living” should be “permission to travel to Avignon where his parents and sister were living”
It might be interesting to add to the article that Walter Rudin and his wife lived in a house designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Takakazu Shinsuke Seki
“Gorozayemon” should be “Gorozaemon”
George Gabriel Stokes
Oddly, the article completely omits "Stokes' theorem". Although Stokes did not originate the theorem, it seems odd not to mention it. It is also not mentioned in the biography of the person who did originate it, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin).
Gregorius Saint-Vincent
Verbosity: “It is interesting to note that this document contains the first recorded use of polar coordinates”
Suggested replacement: “This document contains the first recorded use of polar coordinates”
Andrew John Wiles
“The family sailed from Lagos to London, on the Winneba, arriving in England on 3 July 1959.” should be “The family sailed from Lagos to London on the Winneba, arriving in England on 3 July 1959.” (Extraneous comma)
“its a rare privilege” should be “it's a rare privilege”
Other notes
Some other observations about the pages
Use of italics for quotes
The use of italics for very long quotes is extremely bad style. It is very tiring to read large amounts of text in italics, but the quotes go on for paragraphs in this very annoying style. There are many other ways of marking text as quotations than italics.
Text is too wide
Each line contains too many characters. The length of the lines should be shortened so that it contains about fifty or sixty letters and spaces.
Pictures could be inlined
While it might have made sense to put the pictures at the end of THIS LINK when the pages were first made, due to slow internet connections at the time, it's no longer necessary and it would make the pages much easier to read if the images could be inlined.