Excerpt from The Genesis of Lamé's EquationIt is then pointed out that the use of confocal coordinates does not presuppose the variables to be real, and the familiar formulae are found without reference to geometry. An account of the origin of ellipsoidal harmonics and of the relation of the different species to Lamé's equation follows naturally, and the note ends with a transformation into confocal coordinates of the operator introduced by Niven.There is no novelty in the results, and the methods are straightforward, all that is claimed is that the algebra is brief and to the point.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.