著者

益田 すみ子

出版者

日本科学史学会

雑誌

科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.57, no.287, pp.168-185, 2018 (Released:2021-01-24)

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Shunkichi Kimura (1866-1938) studied quaternions during his stay in the U.S. from 1893 to 1896. In particular he deepened and widened his understanding of quaternions. Kimura was first introduced quaternions by one of Scottish teachers who were working in early Meiji Japan. These teachers were former students of Peter Guthrie Tait (1831-1901) at Edinburgh University. Tait had developed quaternions to apply to geometry and physics. One of his key ideas was that quaternions transform vectors as operators. Taitʼs students taught Japanese students, including Kimura, only Taitʼs style of quaternions aiming at application to physics and engineering. But in the U.S. Kimura found that quaternions were not only operators for transformation of vectors but also the expanded complex numbers. He recognized the need for more exchange between scientists interested in quaternions and allied systems of mathematics, and hoped promoting quaternions as pure mathematics. So he proposed for an “International Association for Promoting the study of Quaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics” in 1895. His enthusiasm for quaternions as pure mathematics was his primary motive of this proposal. Because of difficulty of finding a president and secretaries, only in 1899, after Kimuraʼs return to Japan, was this association established by Scottish and Irish scientists and it remained active for fourteen years. Kimuraʼs proposal for this association also shows how productive he was during his three year study in the U. S.