Combinatorial group theory

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>See the book by Chandler and Magnus for a detailed history of combinatorial group theory.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a>
</p><p>A proto-form is found in the 1856 <a href="/facts/Icosian_calculus/ptfEWNnG">icosian calculus</a> of <a href="/facts/William_Rowan_Hamilton/U86CqUlt">William Rowan Hamilton</a>, where he studied the <a href="/facts/Icosahedral_symmetry/pDlwAy23">icosahedral</a> <a href="/facts/Symmetry_group/CNqeseMp">symmetry group</a> via the edge graph of the dodecahedron.
</p><p>The foundations of combinatorial group theory were laid by <a href="/facts/Walther_von_Dyck/lXuECVC4">Walther von Dyck</a>, student of <a href="/facts/Felix_Klein/WmL9guqK">Felix Klein</a>, in the early 1880s, who gave the first systematic study of groups by generators and relations.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Chandler, B.; Magnus, Wilhelm (December 1, 1982), The History of Combinatorial Group Theory: A Case Study in the History of Ideas, Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (1st ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-0-387-90749-9 <a href="978-0-387-90749-9" target="_blank">978-0-387-90749-9</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Stillwell, John (2002), Mathematics and its history, Springer, p. 374, ISBN 978-0-387-95336-6 <a href="978-0-387-95336-6" target="_blank">978-0-387-95336-6</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Combinatorial group theory open-in-new

Combinatorial group theory