Mathematician:Colin Maclaurin

Mathematician

Held the record for almost 300 years as the youngest professor in history.

Worked extensively on elliptic functions.

Best known nowadays for Maclaurin Series.

Nationality

Scottish

History

• Born: February 1698
• Died: 14 June 1746

Theorems

• Maclaurin Series (which are Taylor Series expanded around zero)
• Trisectrix of Maclaurin

• Maclaurin-Cauchy Test (with Augustin Louis Cauchy)
• Euler-Maclaurin Summation Formula

Results named for Colin Maclaurin can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Colin Maclaurin can be found here.

Publications

• 1720: Geometria Organica
• 1720: De Linearum Geometricarum Proprietatibus
• 1742: A Treatise of Fluxions (two volumes) The first systematic exposition of Newton's methods.

Posthumous

• 1748: Treatise on Algebra
• 1748 or 1750: Account of Newton's Discoveries

Also known as

His surname can also be seen rendered as MacLaurin, Mac Laurin, or M'Laurine.

His name also appeared as Colino Mac Laurin on the title page of his Geometria Organica, but it is possible that this was a typographical error.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Colin Maclaurin": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): Maclaurin, Colin (1698 -- 1746)
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Maclaurin, Colin (1698-1746)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Maclaurin, Colin (1698-1746)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Maclaurin, Colin (1698-1746)