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VECTORANDTENSORCALCULUSFORENGINEERS
Asnotedbytheauthorhimself,hewasfullyconvincedabout
thenoveltyofhiswork.Intheintroduction,heemphasised
itsinfluenceontheworksofotherauthors,includingRudolf
Clebsch.Grassmanndefinedtheconceptsofvectorindependence,
vectorspacedimension,exteriorandinteriormultivectormul-
tiplication.Hewasthefirsttointroducetheconceptofexterior
product(einausseresProdukt)asvectorproduct
ab
=
ba
(cf.p.60-64,ed.of1877;symbolsaccordingtotheoriginal
notation).Incontemporaryliterature,antisymmetrictensorprod-
uct,exteriorproductorwedgeproductisrecordeddiferently,
as^=^=®®
ab
baa
bb
awhile
a
#
b-thisnotationwas
probablyfirstusedbyCartanin1922.Itshouldbenoted,howev-
er,thattheauthordidnotusetheword“vector”(German:Vektor)
directly.HeusesthetermofausseresProduktzweierStrecken
(inGermandieStreckeisaline).Theconceptofvectorspace
wasintroducedbetween1918and1820inaseriesofpapersby
theeminentGermanscientistHermannWeyl(1885-1955,PhDat
theUniversityofGöttingenin1908,supervisorDavidHilbert).
Grassmannalsointroducedtheconceptofn-dimensionalspace,
expandeditsgeometry,firstafneandthenmetricgeometry.He
providedtheconceptsofexterioralgebra,nowadaysreferredto
asGrassmannalgebra.
HermannG.Grassmannwasalsointerestedinphysics.In1845,
hepublishedapaperonelectrodynamics.Hisresultswerecon-
firmedbyClausiusin1876.In1853,heformulatedthelawsof
activecolourmixing(nowadaysalsoreferredtoasGrassmann’s
laws),whichbecamethebasicsofcolorimetry(confirmedin
theworkbyprof.Prayerof1876).In1860-1862,hewasactive
inlinguisticsanddevelopedaSanskritdictionary(theliterary
languageofAncient,MedievalandEarlyModernIndia)for
Rigveda(theoldestIndo-Aryanpieceofliterature,workedon
byGrassmannin1872-1875).Helovedmusicandcollected
Pomeranianfolksongs.Hebecameacorrespondent-memberof
theGöttingenScientificSocietyin1871andamemberofthe
AmericanOrientalSocietyin1876.In1876,theUniversityof
Tübingen(theFacultyofPhilosophy)conferredthetitleofdoctor
honoriscausauponhim.
ThefinalyearsofGrassmann’slifewereatimeofphysicalsuf-
fering(heusedawheelchair),butalsorecognitionofhisworks.
Despitehislegcondition,hewastransportedtolecturesinthe
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