Download or read book Lectures on the Theory of Functions of Real Variables, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint) written by James Pierpont and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Lectures on the Theory of Functions of Real Variables, Vol. 2 The present volume has been written in the same spirit that animated tlie first. The author has not intended to write a treatise or a manual; he has aimed rather to reproduce his university lectures with necessary modifications, hoping that the freedom in the choice of subjects and in the manner of presentation allowable in a lecture room may prove helpful and stimulating to a larger audience. A distinctive feature of these Lectures is an attempt to develop the theory of functions with reference to a general domain of definition. The first functions to be considered were simple combinations of the elementary functions. Riemann in his great paper of 1854, "Ueber die Darstellbarkeit einer Function durch eine trigonometrische Reihe," was the first to consider seriously functions whose singularities ceased to be intuitional. The researches of later mathematicians have brought to light a collection of such functions, whose existence so long unsuspected has revolutionized the older notion of a function and made imperative the creation of finer tools of research. But while minute attention was paid to the singular character of these functions, practically none was accorded to the domain over which a function may be defined. After the epoch-making discoveries inaugurated in 1874 by G. Cantor in the theory of point sets, it was no longer necessary to consider a function of one variable as defined in an interval, a function of two variables as defined over a field bounded by one or more simple curves, etc. The first to make use of this new freedom was C. Jordan in his classic paper of 1892. He has had, however, but few imitators. In the present Lectures the author has endeavored to develop this broader view of Jordan, persuaded that in so doing he is merely carrying a step farther the ideas of Dirichlet and Riemann. Often such an endeavor leads to nothing new, a mere statement for any n of what is true for n = 1, or 2. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.