Definition:Airy Function/First Kind

Definition

An Airy function of the first kind is an Airy function which is of the form:

$\ds \map {\Ai} x = \dfrac 1 \pi \int_0^\infty \map \cos {\dfrac {t^3} 3 + x t} \rd t$

Also see

• Results about Airy functions can be found here.

Source of Name

This entry was named for George Biddell Airy.

Historical Note

The Airy functions were first investigated to address the question of the appearance of a star in a telescope.

Sources

• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Airy functions
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Airy function
• 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Airy function