Where can I find the old papers of the Math Tripos?
Is there a repository on the Internet which has the old question papers of the tripos? I am specifically interested in the papers during the 1890-1910 era, which was the era before the reforms, although I'm also interested in the other, more recent papers.
Most of the problems which I have come across from the pre-reform era are very interesting, and it would be wonderful if the actual full papers are accessible now.
Thanks in advance!
Solution 1:
There are dozens of books which contain papers and solutions. The exam used to be called the senate-house examination a while ago, hence the titles. 'Tripos' is derived from the way the exam was taken, where you had to sit on a 3-legged wooden stool and "wrangle" - argue through problems orally - with the examiners. ('Riders' are just the first few parts of a problem, which are usually simple book-work questions in order to allow the weaker candidates to gain some points on the exam.) To name a few:
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, with solutions, 1875 - Greenhill
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, with solutions, 1878 - Glaisher
- Mathematical problems for Cambridge Mathematical Tripos - Wolstenholme (I remember seeing a solutions manual to this somewhere, but it might be called something weird like "Key to..." instead of "Solutions to...".)
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, 1848-1851 - Ferrers
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, 1843-1851 - Jameson
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, 1854 - Walton
- Cambridge senate-house problems and riders, 1857 - Walton
You can easily discover more by searching "cambridge senate house" on archive.org. Other useful terms include: "cambridge problems and riders", "cambridge senate house solutions", "problems cambridge examinations", "cambridge examples", etc.
Solution 2:
They seem to be hard to find! Here is a link to one from 1906 which was published in the Bulletin of the AMS. The article begins with a lengthy description, but includes the actual exam papers. (Navigate to the bottom of the page to find a link to the .pdf.)
An interesting book available from Google e-books for the right price (free) can be found here. It overlaps with your specified period, and has exam papers in various subjects, including mathematics.
Solution 3:
I think if you search through archive.org you will find some there
EDIT: These are outside your era however..