Talk:Christian Kramp

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Espresso Addict 14:46, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

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Questions about publications

1. There are several citations for a book called Elemens d'arithmetique on the web (there's a book available on Amazon for a start). However, the publication date for this is given as 1801. Note: no accents on e's. Is this the same book?
2. The external link cited on this page is directed to a site which has shut down.
3. Knuth in TAOCP (page 49 of 3rd edition, section 1.2.5) has the title as Elémens d'arithmétique universelle. Note the extra accent on the 2nd e of "elemens". Also note: no "t" in "Elemens". My French is not so good so I'm not sure what is correct. I'd be inclined to trust Knuth, he tends to know what he's doing. WestwoodMatt (talk) 23:07, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Answers about publications

1. The title is "Élémens d'arithmétique universelle", note the accent of both e's. The accents (and other diacritic marks) are often omitted, so albeit I haven't found the amazon specimen you are talking about, it's most certainly the same book. Looking att the scanned edition it states 1808 as the year of print. Furthermore I've searched worldcat for any other editions and found none.
2. I've found a new link to the original book https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Christian_Kramp_Elemens_d_arithmetique_universelle?id=w-pSD-UeLRUC or https://books.google.se/books?id=w-pSD-UeLRUC. Also living version to the dead link, which humorously contains De Morgan critic of the use of "!" http://jeff560.tripod.com/stat.html
3. I looked upp Knut and it's written with an accent on the capital E.

Confusing quote

The quote is incorrect, it's a mix of two different paragraphs.

1. The first regarding the "!" notation being from the 4th paragraph of page vi-vii: "Je me sers de la notation trés simple n! pour désigner le produit des nombres décroissans depuis n jusqu'à l'unité, savoir n(n-1) (n-2) .... 3. 2. 1. L'emploi continuel de l'analyse combinatoire que je fais dans la plupart de mes démonstrations, a rendu cette notation in dispensable". Translation: "I employ the very simple notation n! for denoting the product of the decreasing integers from n to the unity, that is, n(n-1) (n-2) .... 3. 2. 1. The continued usage of combinatorial analysis I make in the greater part of my proofs has made this notation indispensable."
2. And the second quote regarding the name "factorial" proposed by Arbogast (much later in the book) on the 3rd paragraph of page xii: "[...]; je leur avois donné le nom de facultés. ARBOGAST lui avoit substitué la dénomination plus nette et plus françoise de factorielles; j'ai reconnu l'avantage de cette nouvelle dénomination; et en adoptant son idée, je me suis félicité de pouvoir rendre hommage à la mémoire de mon ami". Translation: "I gave them the name of faculties. ARBOGAST had substituted for it the clearer and more French denomination of factorials; I recognized the advantage of this new denomination; and in adopting his idea, I was pleased to being able to pay homage to the memory of my friend."

References