"In arithmetical algebra we consider symbols as representing numbers, and the operations to which they are submitted as included in the same definitions as in common arithmetic; the signs + and - denote the operations of addition and subtraction in their ordinary meaning only, and those operations are considered as impossible in all cases where the symbols subjected to them possess values which would render them so in case they were replaced by digital numbers; thus in expressions such as a + b we must suppose a and b to be quantities of the same kind; in others, like a - b, we must suppose a greater than b and therefore homogeneous with it; in products and quotients, like ab and \frac{a}{b} we must suppose the multiplier and divisor to be abstract numbers; all results whatsoever, including negative quantities, which are not strictly deducible as legitimate conclusions from the definitions of the several operations must be rejected as impossible, or as foreign to the science."
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Religious leadersUniversity of Cambridge alumniFellows of the Royal SocietyUniversity of Cambridge facultyMathematicians from England
Original Language: English
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Vol. I: Arithmetical Algebra Preface, p. iv
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Peacock
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George Peacock
George Peacock (April 9, 1791 – November 8, 1858) was an English mathematician and author of books on mathematics and a biography of Thomas Young. He became a deacon, then priest, in the Church of England, and later, Vicar of Wymewold and Dean of Ely cathedral, Cambridgeshire. He was also professor of astronomy at the University of Cambridge.
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