Iv sasi biography of william hamilton

Hamilton, Sir William Rowan , mathematician and astronomer, was born in Dublin, 9th August , His father was an attorney; his mother was related to Hutton, the mathematician. Intended for an Indian appointment, he was, when a mere child, sent to study with an uncle at Trim. At four he had made some progress in Hebrew, and in the two succeeding years he acquired the elements of Greek and Latin.

In mathematics he was almost self-taught. Entering Trinity College in , he carried everything before him, and had mastered Newton's Principia , the Differential Calculus, and La Place's Mecanique Celeste before he was nineteen. A paper containing original researches on curves of double curvature, and a memoir on caustic curves, read before the Royal Irish Academy in , placed him in the front rank of scientific Irishmen.

The astronomers of Europe were somewhat astonished when, in , a young man who had not attained the age of twenty-two stepped at once from the position of an undergraduate to that of Andrews Professor of Astronomy and superintendent of the Observatory at Dunsink, near Dublin, especially as he was not known to have displayed any talent for practical astronomy or observing.

Journal of the William Hamilton

Until his marriage in , his sisters, women of uncommon abilities, resided with him at the Observatory, Dunsink. He early produced his great work on The Theory of Systems of Rays , "which with its supplements is regarded as of the highest importance in relation to the geometry of optics. Chasles spoke of it as 'dominant toute cette vaste theorie.

One of his discoveries, literally made upon paper, was that of conical refraction, a thing neither known nor surmised by practical experimenters in optics. Humphrey Lloyd. Hamilton was knighted by Lord Mulgravein , on the occasion of the first meeting in Dublin of the British Association. In he was elected President of the Royal Irish Academy; of which, from , he was one of the most active members.

His works on General System of Dynamics , Calculus of Quaternions , and his various contributions to philosophical transactions, besides stores of mathematical research left behind in MS. His Calculus is considered by mathematicians to be of great scope and power; it has been illustrated and developed since his death by Professor Tait of Edinburgh.