Alexander MacFarlane

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For the Nova Scotia politician, see Alexander Macfarlane.

Alexander MacFarlane (1851 - 1913) was a Scottish-Canadian logician, physicist, and mathematician. He was born at Blairgowrie, Scotland.

During his life, he played a prominent role in research and education. He was, at various times in his life, physics professor at the University of Texas, professor of Advanced Electricity, and later of mathematical physics, at Lehigh University, and the leader of the International Quaternion Society. He was also the author of a popular 1916 collection of mathematical biographies, and compiled a bibliography on quaternions in 1904. Significantly, he invented of hyperbolic quaternions, precursor to Minkowski space. He actively participated in several International Congresses of Mathematicians including the Paris meeting of 1900 where he brought up coquaternions.