Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/432

 414 L E G L E G remainder of the first volume relates to the Eulerian integrals and to quadratures. The second volume (1817) relates to the Eulerian integrals, and to various integrals and series, developments, me chanical problems, &c., connected with the integral calculus; this volume contains also a numerical table of the values of the gamma function. The latter portion of the second volume of the Traite des Fonctions Elliptiqucs (1826) is also devoted to the Eulerian inte grals, the table being reproduced. Legendre s researches connected with the gamma function are of importance, and are well known ; the subject was also treated by Gauss in his memoir Disquisitiones gcncrales circa series infinitas (1816), but in a very different manner. The results given in the second volume of the Excrcices are of too miscellaneous a character to admit of being briefly described. In 1788 Legendre published a memoir on double integrals, and in 1809 one on definite integrals. Theory of lumbers. Legendre s Theorie des Nombrcs and Gauss s Disquisitiones Arithmetical (1801) are still the standard works upon this subject. The first edition of the former appeared in 1798 under the title Esmi sur In Theorie des Nombrcs ; there was a second edition in 1808 ; a first supplement was published in 1816, and a second in 1825. The third edition, under the title Theorie des Nombrcs, appeared in 1830 in two volumes. To Legendre is due the theorem known as the law of quadratic reciprocity, the most important general result in the science of numbers which has been discovered since the time of Format, and which was called by Gauss the &quot;gem of arithmetic.&quot; It was first given by Legendre in the Memoires of the Academy for 1785, but the demonstration that accompanied it was incomplete. The symbol which is known as Legendre s sym bol, and denotes the positive or negative unit which is the remainder when a^P* 1 ) is divided by a prime number p, does not appear in this memoir, but was first used in the Essai sur la Theorie des Nombres. Legendre s formula x : (log x - 1 08366) for the approximate number of forms inferior to a given number x was first given by him also in this work (2d ed., p. 394). Attractions of Ellipsoids. Legendre was the author of four im portant memoirs on this subject. In the first of these, entitled &quot; Recherches sur 1 attraction des spheroides homogenes,&quot; published in the Memoires of the Academy for 1785, but communicated to it at an earlier period, Legendre introduces the celebrated expressions which, though frequently called Laplace s coefficients, are more correctly named after Legendre. The definition of the coefficients is that if (1 - 2A cos &amp;lt;p + A 2 )~* be expanded in ascending powers of h, and if the general term be denoted by P n h n, then 1 is of the Legendrian coefficient of the 7ith order. In this memoir also the function which is now called the potential was, at the suggestion of Laplace, first in troduced. Legendre shows that Maclaurin s theorem with respect to confocal ellipsoids is true for any position of the external point when the ellipsoids are solids of revolution. Of this memoir Todhunter writes &quot; We may affirm that no single memoir in the history of our subject can rival this in interest and importance. During forty years the resources of analysis, even in the hands of D Alembert, Lagrange, and Laplace, had not carried the theory of the attraction of ellipsoids beyond the point which the geometry of Maclaurin had reached. The introduction of the coefficients now called Laplace s, and their application, commence a new era in mathematical phy sics.&quot; Legendre s second memoir was communicated to the Aca demy in 1784, and relates to the conditions of equilibrium of a mass of rotating fluid in the form of a figure of revolution which does not deviate much from a sphere. The third memoir relates to Laplace s theorem respecting confocal ellipsoids. Of the fourth memoir Todhunter writes, &quot; It occupies an important position in the history of our subject. The most striking addition which is here made to previous researches consists in the treatment of a planet supposed entirely fluid ; the general equation for the form of a stratum is given for the first time and discussed. For the first time we have a correct and convenient expression for Laplace s ?ith coefficient.&quot; See Todhunter s History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and the Figure of the Earth (1873), the twentieth, twenty-second, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth chapters of which contain a full and complete account of Legendre s four memoirs. For the theory of the Legendrian coefficients and the analysis connected with them, the reader is referred to Heine s Handbuch der Kugelfunctionen (Berlin, 1878), to Todhunter s Treatise on Laplace s Functions, Lames Functions, and Bcsscl s Functions (1875), or to Ferrers s Spherical liar monies (187 7). It should be mentioned that Legendre s coefficients have been recently termed- zonal harmonics by some writers. Geodesy. Besides the work upon the geodetical operations con necting Paris and Greenwich referred to above, and of which Legendre was one of the authors, he published in the Memoires of the Academy for 1787 two papers on trigonometrical operations depending upon the figure of the earth, containing many theorems relating to this subject. The best known of these, which is called Legendre s theorem, is usually given in treatises on spherical trigo nometry ; by means of it a small spherical triangle may be treated as a plane triangle, certain corrections being applied to the angles. Legendre was also the author of a memoir upon triangles drawn upon a spheroid. Legendre s theorem is a fundamental one in geodesy, and his contributions to the subject are of the greatest importance. Method of Least Squares. In 1806 appeared Legendre s Nouvclles Methodes pour ladetcrminationdcsorbitesdes Cometes, which is memor able as containing the first published suggestion of the method of least squares. In the preface Legendre remarks, &quot;La methode qui me paroit la plus simple et la plus generale consiste a rendre minimum la somme des quarres des erreurs,. . . et que j appelle methode des moindres quarres &quot; ; and in an appendix in which the application of the method is explained his words are, De tons les principes qu on pent proposer pour cet objet, je pense qu il ii en est pas de plus general, de plus exact, ni d une application plus facile que celui dont nous avons fait usage dans les recherches precedentes, et qui consiste a rendre minimum la sormne des quarres des erreurs.&quot; The method was proposed by Legendre only as a convenient process for treating observations, without reference to the theory of proba bility. It had, however, been applied by Gauss as early as 1795, and the method was fully explained, and the law of facility for the first time given by him in 1809. Laplace also justified the method by means of the principles of the theory of probability ; and this led Legendre to republish the part of his Nouvcllcs Methodes which related to it in the Memoires of the Academy for 1810. Thus, although the method of least squares was first formally proposed by Legendre, the theory and algorithm and mathematical foundation of the process are due to Gauss and Laplace. Legendre published two supplements to his Nouvellcs Methodes in 1806 and 1820. The Elements of Geometry. Legendre s name is most widely known on account of his Elements de geometric, the most successful of the numerous attempts that have been made to supersede Euclid as a text-book on geometry. It first appeared in 1794, and went through very many editions, and has been translated into almost all languages. An English translation, by Sir David Brewster, from the eleventh French edition, was published in 1823, and is well known in England. The earlier editions did not contain the trigonometry. In one of the notes Legendre gives a proof of the irrationality of -K. This had been first proved by Lambert in the Berlin Memoirs for 1768. Legendre s proof is similar in principle to Lambert s, but much simpler. On account of the objections urged against the treatment of parallels in this work, Legendre was induced to publish in 1803 his Nouvclle Theorie des parallelcs. His Geometry gave rise in England also to a lengthened discussion on the difficult question of the treatment of the theory of parallels. It will thus be seen that Legendre s works have placed him in the very foremost rank in the widely distinct subjects of elliptic func tions, theory of numbers, attractions, and geodesy, and have given him a conspicuous position in connexion with the integral calculus and other branches of mathematics. He published a memoir on the integration of partial differential equations and a few others which have not been noticed above, but they relate to subjects with which his name is not especially associated. A good account of the principal works of Legendre is given in the Bibliothequc Universelle de Geneve for 1833, pp. 45-82. (J. W. L. G.) LEGERDEMAIN, PRESTIDIGITATION, or SLEIGHT OF HAND, as it is variously called, is the art of deceiving the eye of the spectator by adroit movements of the hand of the operator so as apparently to cause an object either to be changed, produced, or made to disappear. The term &quot;legerdemain&quot; is extended in meaning to include all sorts of &quot;conjuring&quot; by means of mechanical and other con trivances, although it properly applies to tricks performed with the hand alone. Even in ancient times two distinct branches of magic existed the impostures of divination and necromancy, and the amusing exhibition of jugglery and sleight of hand. Judging from the accounts which history has handed down to us, the marvels performed by the thaumaturgists of antiquity were very skilfully produced, and must have required a considerable practical knowledge of the art. The Eomans were in the habit of giving conjuring exhibitions, the most favourite feat being that of the &quot;cups and balls,&quot; the performers of which were called acetabularii, and the cups themselves acetalula. The balls used, however, instead of being the convenient light cork ones employed by modern conjurors, were simply round white pebbles which must have added greatly to the difficulty of performing the trick. The art survived the barbarism and ignorance of the Middle Ages ; and the earliest professors of the modern school were Italians such as Jonas, Androletti, and Antonio Carlotti. In England