On 2006-04-25 09:18, tgpedersen wrote:
> I got the impression from a biography of Grassmann I read that his
> inspiration for the invention of vector space came from Sanskrit
> texts.
What biography was that? Grassmann developed the foundations of his
vector space theory between ca. 1832 (when still a fresch graduate) and
1844 (the publication of "Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre"). I'm not sure
how much Sanskrit he knew by then (certainly less than Latin and Greek),
but he began to study Sanskrit literature and historical linguistics in
earnest _after_ his disappointment with the failure of other
mathematicians to show any interest in his work. He didn't give up and
would return to mathematics at intervals, with contributions now
regarded as important, but on the whole it's fair to say that Sanskrit
studies came after maths in his case.
Piotr