Heaviside and the development of the symbolic calculus
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Heaviside and the development of the symbolic calculus
zbMATH Open document ID: 0624.01006
DOI: 10.1007/BF00412328
author: S. S. Petrova
published in: Archive for History of Exact Sciences
publication date: 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z
review text: This paper treats the symbolic or operational method pioneered by O. Heaviside in solving certain types of ordinary and partial differential equations. A survey of the symbolic and operational solutions developed by Cauchy, Gregory and Boole is given. There are several illustrations of operational and power series method in obtaining solutions of differential equations (both ordinary and partial, linear) without taking recourse to integration. Heaviside obtained his solutions by the symbolic method without rigorously justifying its validity, nevertheless it was useful in many applications especially in electrical engineering at that time and even today. This paper is interesting to read and serves as a good addition to the historical and expository literature.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A55
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 34A25
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 34-03
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 35A25
zbMATH DE Number: 4012538
zbMATH Keywords: symbolic calculus. operational method
zbMATH Keywords: power series method
zbMATH Keywords: applications
MaRDI profile type: Publication
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4012538