Timeline for Origin of the term "weight" in representation theory
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 19, 2014 at 22:06 | vote | accept | Torsten Schoeneberg | ||
| Jan 19, 2014 at 22:04 | comment | added | Torsten Schoeneberg | Pp. 272 and 288 of Hawkins's book answer the question, consistent with Robert Bryant's comment. Cartan introduced "poids" in papers of 1909 / 1913. According to Hawkins, this was prompted by "Gewichte" in a 1902 paper by G. Kowalewski (an expository version of which is digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PPN=GDZPPN002118912). Kowalewski's usage, in turn, comes from 19th century invariant theory. -- Amusing sidenotes: 1) In his French paper in Crelle 1854, Cayley translates weight as "pesanteur". 2) On p. 288, Hawkins writes "poid" without "s", like, well, some of us have done here ... | |
| Jan 19, 2014 at 20:00 | comment | added | Jim Humphreys | @Julien: Thanks for the proofreading help. I'm not sure how I wrote "poid", but I should note that "nineteenth century invariant theory" is proper English usage though your version is not. (And for me "relevant" is about as good as "pertinent", though the former word is overused.) | |
| S Jan 19, 2014 at 19:27 | history | suggested | Julien Puydt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Corrected spelling (and s/relevant/pertinent/ to avoid a repetition)
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| Jan 19, 2014 at 19:23 | comment | added | Julien Puydt | Before someone comments my editing the post with "poids" instead of "poid" : this is one of those singular french words taking an 's' (pun intended). | |
| Jan 19, 2014 at 19:21 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jan 19, 2014 at 19:27 | |||||
| Jan 18, 2014 at 18:37 | comment | added | Jim Humphreys | @Torsten: The history of Lie theory goes back a long way, and Tom Hawkins has devoted much of his professional career to understanding it in detail. Of course, a modern researcher need not master so much of the history, but it's an interesting example of the evolution of ideas. | |
| Jan 18, 2014 at 16:42 | history | answered | Jim Humphreys | CC BY-SA 3.0 |