Elementary Algebra

by W.W. Rouse Ball

"This work on elementary algebra has been written at the request of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, and is intended to include those parts of the subject which most Schools and Examination Boards consider as covered by the adjective 'elementary'. The discussion, herein contained, of Permutations and Combinations, the Binomial Theorem, and the Exponential Theorem - subjects which are sometimes included in Elementary Algebra, and sometimes excluded from it - should be regarded as introductory to their treatment in larger textbooks. I have in general followed the order of arrangement and method of presenting the subject which are traditional in England. ... I am indebted to the kindness of the Secretaries of the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board for permission to use the papers and questions which have been set in the examinations held under their authority. A large number of the examples inserted at the end of each chapter are, except for a few verbal alterations, derived from one or other of these sources."

486 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

Walter William Rouse Ball, known as W. W. Rouse Ball (14 August 1850 – 4 April 1925), was a British mathematician, lawyer, and fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1878 to 1905. He was also a keen amateur magician, and the founding president of the Cambridge Pentacle Club in 1919, one of the world's oldest magic societies.

Rouse Ball was educated at University College School, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1870, where he became a scholar and the first winner of Smith's Prize. He gained his BA in 1874 as second Wrangler and then became a Fellow of Trinity in 1875, which he remained for the rest of his life.

He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, and is commemorated in the naming of a small pavilion situated on Jesus Green in Cambridge. The Rouse Ball Professorship of Mathematics and the Rouse Ball Professorship at English Law, both held at Cambridge, were created in 1927 from a bequest by Rouse Ball.