William rowan hamilton from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia sir william rowan hamilton midnight, 34 august 1805 2 september 1865 was an irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. He made important contreibutions tae optics, clessical mechanics an algebra. Against the background of the development of physics, and in particular of mechanics, over the centuries since galileo and newton, we describe the life and work of william rowan hamilton in the 19th century. The irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist sir william rowan hamilton made an enormous number of contributions to his elds. William rowan hamilton synonyms, william rowan hamilton pronunciation, william rowan hamilton translation, english dictionary definition of william rowan hamilton. The famous irish mathematician sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 is generally regarded as having been an unhappily married alcoholic. This unintentionally caused his biography to become the basis of hamiltons overall negative image. Graves collected hamiltons papers and letters for his biography shortly after hamiltons death. Sir william rowan hamilton midnight, 34 august 1805 2 september 1865 was an irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. William rowan hamilton was irelands greatest scientist. Sir william rowan hamilton article pdf available in bshm bulletin journal of the british society for the history of mathematics 331. This collection consists of the mathematical papers of sir william rowan hamilton published during his lifetime, transcribed and edited by david r. Elements of quaternions sir william rowan hamilton full view 1866. The first page of the pdf of this article appears above.
Sir william rowan hamilton biography facts, childhood. Sir william rowan hamilton as a scholar who has long had an interest in william rowan hamilton 18051865 widely recognised as irelands most gifted scientist, i was very pleased to have a chance to read anne van weerdens a victorian marriage. Keywords newtonian mechanics, euler lagrange equations, hamiltonian mechanics and optics, quaternions. Quoted in robert percival graves life of sir william rowan hamilton 1882 1889. His analysis of motion anticipated several basic notions of relativity and quantum mechanics. In judging hamiltons poems, one can perhaps do no better than quote wordsworths reaction to the earlier ones. Arbuthnots data of christenings in london for the years 16291710 males for 82 years, then females for 82 years. Sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 spent the years 1835 to 1843 trying to develop a three dimensional number system based on triples of real numbers. In this essay a sketch of her life is given, as far as that was possible from. In 1833 he published a paper describing a characteristic function determining the behavior of rays. Graves, life of sir william rowan hamilton, 3 vols.
This page is dedicated to the life and work of sir william rowan hamilton. The mathematical papers of sir william rowan hamilton. When he died some sixty years later he was without question the most famous irish scientist of his day. General article sir william rowan hamilton life, achievements, stature in physics n mukunda his interests are classical and quantum mechanics, theoretical optics and mathematical physics. Who would not rather have the fame of archimedes than that of his conqueror marcellus. However, he did succeed in developing a four dimensional number system, now called the quaternions and denoted. The irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist sir william rowan hamilton made an enormous number of contributions to his fields. With one exception, these papers are available here in an edition based on the original published text.
Quoted in h eves mathematical circles revisited boston. Although hamilton was not a physicisthe regarded himself as a pure. Hamilton, ireland, with pictures and collection and swap management. Hamilton, william rowan, in dictionary of national biography, london. Sir william rowan hamilton irish mathematician hamilton, william rowan hamilton. He was a linguist, a mathematician, an astronomer and a physicist all rolled into one and had contributed to a huge extent to the world of algebra, geometry, optics and dynamics. His work proved significant for the development of quantum mechanics hamilton was the son of a solicitor. Publication date 1980 topics hamilton, william rowan, sir, 18051865, mathematicians ireland biography. Life of sir william rowan hamilton, andrews professor of.
The aim of this essay is to show that, contrary to this widespread belief, hamilton had a good marriage, that in fact large parts of his marriage were fairly happy. His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover new mathematical concepts and techniques. Sir william rowan hamilton, born august 34, 1805, dublin, irelanddied september 2, 1865, dublin, irish mathematician who contributed to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebrain particular, discovering the algebra of quaternions. Sir william rowan hamilton was one of the greatest scientists to be born in ireland. By the age of five, william had already learned latin, greek, and hebrew. His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover. He spoke to his son of anticipated applications of quaternions to electricity, and to all questions in which the idea of. Catherine disney 18001853 was only known for having been the lost love of sir william rowan hamilton 1805 1865. Hamiltons father did not have a university education, and it is thought that hamiltons genius came from his mother, sarah hutton. The mathematical optics of sir william rowan hamilton. Sir william rowan hamilton mria 4 august 1805 2 september 1865 wis an erse mathematician.
The picture below is a photograph of hamiltons icosian game that requires players to complete tours through the 20 points using only the specified connections. Detailed information about the coin 10 euro sir william r. William rowan hamilton wikisource, the free online library. Life of sir william rowan hamilton, andrews professor of astronomy in the university of dublin, and royal astronomer of ireland, including selections from his poems, correspondence, and miscellaneous writings by graves, robert perceval. The depth of his ideas which brought together the understanding of ray optics and classical mechanics, and the remarkable ways in which his work paved the way to the construction of. He worked in both pure mathematics and mathematics for physics. William rowan hamilton definition of william rowan. Sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 mu library treasures. Ingram cambridge university press, cambridge, 1967. The ps and pdf versions have fully integrated figures. The dvi version includes, in a zip archive, 1 figure in eps format. This year ireland celebrates the bicentenary of the mathematician william rowan hamilton.
Hamilton, william rowan dnb00 wikisource, the free. He was an mathematician, physicist, and astronomer and made important works in optics, dynamics, and algebra. Works by this author published before january 1, 1925 are in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. The irish mathematical physicist sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 reshaped theoretical optics by basing it on his law of varying action. W r hamilton discourse page 1 sir william rowan hamilton william rowan hamilton was born in dublins dominick street, at midnight on the 3rd of august 1805.
Download pdf life of sir william rowan hami free online. The 150th anniversary of william rowan hamiltons death is on the 2nd september 2015. His best known contribution to mathematical physics is the reformulation of. Sir william rowan hamilton 180565 was a distinguished irish mathematician who worked in the fields of classical mechanics, optics and algebra, as well as in physics and astronomy. Entrance page to a website about the private life of sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 who described himself as a labourloving and truthloving man. Sir william rowan hamilton mria 4 august 1805 2 september 1865 was an irish mathematician, andrews professor of astronomy at trinity college dublin, and royal astronomer of ireland. R p graves 188291 life of sir william rowan hamiltondublin, hodges. Elements of quaternions sir william rowan hamilton. Robert perceval graves life of sir william rowan hamilton, 3 bde. Sir william rowan hamilton 18051865 mural maynooth. As a result, these elds have immortalized hamilton in the numerous equations and concepts which bear his name. Mathematical problems related to the traveling salesman problem were treated in the 1800s by the irish mathematician sir william rowan hamilton and by the british mathematician thomas penyngton kirkman.
Yet the idea of hamilton as an alcoholic is so widely accepted that any one seems to be allowed to write anything about him as long as it fits the depressed view of him. William rowan hamilton university of illinois library. He made important contributions to optics, classical mechanics and algebra. Volume 4, geometry, analysis, astronomy, probability and finite differences, miscellaneous cambridge university press william rowan hamilton. Pronunciation of sir william rowan hamilton with 1 audio pronunciation, 3 synonyms, 5 translations.
The spelling as groupe in the original text, has her been corrected to group to avoid an intrusive sic. Special collections in the john paul ii library holds three volumes of. Hamilton was the discoverer of quaternions, which are defined as a noncommutative number system which extends the complex numbers. Sir william rowan hamilton midnight, 34 august 1805 2 september 1865 was an irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics. Hamilton, sir william rowan 18051865, mathematician, born in dublin at midnight, between 3 and 4 aug. Sir william rowan hamilton definition of sir william.
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