Benjamin Osgood Peirce

thumb|Benjamin Osgood Peirce Benjamin Osgood Peirce (February 11, 1854 – January 14, 1914) was an American mathematician, physicist, and professor holding, from 1888 to 1914, Harvard's Hollis Chair of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy. He was elected in 1884 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1906 to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1910 to the American Philosophical Society. Quotes Newton’s law of universal gravitation 1. The Law of Gravitation. Every body in the universe attracts every other body with a force which depends for magnitude and direction upon the masses of the two bodies and upon their relative positions.An approximate value of the attraction between any two Rigid body rigid bodies may be obtained by imagining the bodies to be divided into small particles, and assuming that every particle of the one body attracts every particle of the other with a force directly proportional to the product of the masses of the two particles, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their Center of mass centres or other corresponding points. The true value of the attraction is the limit approached by this approximate value as the particles into which the bodies are supposed to be divided are made smaller and smaller. Elements of the Theory of the Newtonian Potential Function Cornell University Library historical math monographs revised & enlarged 3rd Boston Ginn & Company 1902 https://books.google.com/books/about/Elements_of_the_Theory_of_the_Newtonian.html?id=J3kAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1 1 (490 pages; 1st edition 1886; text at archive.org) If any of the Polynomial#Solving equations roots of the equation ƒ(x) = 0 are Imaginary number imaginary, the parts of the integral which arise from conjugate roots can be combined and the integral brought into a real form. A Short Table of Integrals revised Ginn & Company 1899 II. Rational Algebraic Functions https://books.google.com/books?id=pYMRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA15 5–15 (quote from p. 15; 135 pages; remark on  ∫ƒ(x)dx, where ƒ = p/q for real polynomials p & q) Quotes about Benjamin Osgood Peirce William Elwood Byerly Professor Byerly, his colleague in the Department of Mathematics, once said of him that he knew more mathematics than any one else in the Department of Mathematics and more physics than any one else in the Department of Physics. And there was no one to gainsay this statement or to take offense at it. Edwin Hall Edwin H. Hall, Death of Professor Peirce January 15, 1914 The Harvard Crimson https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1914/1/15/death-of-professor-peirce-pa-graduate/ External links Edwin Hall Edwin H. Hall, Biographical Memoir of Benjamin Osgood Peirce Biographical Memoirs of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Vol. 8 1919 https://books.google.com/books?id=uLgAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA437 437–466 Category:1854 births Category:1914 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Mathematicians from the United States Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Physicists from the United States Category:Scientists from Massachusetts