• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.157-172
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• 2016

Sophus Lie's research is regarded as one of the most important mathematical advancements in the $19^{th}$ century. His pioneering research in the field of differential equations resulted in an invaluable consolidation of calculus and group theory. Lie's group theory has been investigated and constantly modified by various mathematicians which resulted in a beautifully abstract yet concrete theory. However Lie's early intentions and ideas are lost in the mists of modern transfiguration. In this paper we explore Lie's early academic years and his object of studies which clarify the ground breaking ideas behind his theory.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.17-24
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• 2002

It will be described the discovery of fundamental algebras such as complex numbers and the quaternions. Cardano(1539) was the first to introduce special types of complex numbers such as 5$\pm$$\sqrt{-15}$. Girald called the number a$\pm$$\sqrt{-b}$ solutions impossible. The term imaginary numbers was introduced by Descartes(1629) in “Discours la methode, La geometrie.” Euler knew the geometrical representation of complex numbers by points in a plane. Geometrical definitions of the addition and multiplication of complex numbers conceiving as directed line segments in a plane were given by Gauss in 1831. The expression “complex numbers” seems to be Gauss. Hamilton(1843) defined the complex numbers as paire of real numbers subject to conventional rules of addition and multiplication. Cauchy(1874) interpreted the complex numbers as residue classes of polynomials in R[x] modulo $x^2$＋1. Sophus Lie(1880) introduced commutators [a, b] by the way expressing infinitesimal transformation as differential operations. In this paper, it will be studied general quaternion algebras to finding of algebraic structure in Algebras.