William Rowan Hamilton

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William Hamilton
William Rowan Hamilton
Born4 August 1805
Dublin, Ireland
Died2 September 1865
Dublin, Ireland
NationalityIrish, Scottish origin
Alma materTrinity College Dublin
Known forQuaternion and Hamiltonian
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorJohn Brinkley

William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, mathematics, geometry and algebra. His discovery of quaternions is the most famous work. His work was important in the development of quantum mechanics. Hamilton's talent was discovered very early by the astronomer John Brinkley. In 1823, when Hamilton was eighteen, John Brinkley said: "I don't say he would be but now he is the leading mathematician of his age". Hamilton was the first to introduce the term "vector", "association law".[1]

Reference[change | change source]

  1. "Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (V)". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2019.