Sir William Rowan Hamilton

Thomas L. Hankins (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

496 Seiten

2004
Johns Hopkins University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8018-6973-0 (ISBN)

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One of the most imaginative mathematicians of the nineteenth century, Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) changed the course of modern algebra with his discovery of quaternions in 1843. Although Hamilton's work was largely theoretical, his ideas came to have invaluable practical applications with the advent of quantum mechanics in the twentieth century. In this acclaimed biography, Thomas L. Hankins brings together the many aspects of Hamilton's life and work-from his significant contributions to mathematics, optics, and mechanics to his passion for metaphysics, poetry, and politics-fully portraying the brilliant man whose faith and idealism guided him in everything he did.

Thomas L. Hankins is a professor emeritus of the history of science at the University of Washington.

Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Birth and Education
1. Early Years
2. Trinity College and Dunsink Observatory
3. Life at the Observatory
II. Ray Optics
4. The "Theory of Systems of Rays"
5. Creating the "Theory of Systems of Rays"
6. Conical Refraction
III. Marriage
7. Philosophical Romance
8. Helen Bayly
IV. Light and Dynamics
9. Theories of Light
10. Optics at the British Association
11. The Luminiferous Aether
12. The Metaphysical Foundations of Mechanics
13. The General Method in Dynamics
14. The Fate of the Optical-Mechanical Analogy
V. Politics and Religion
15. Reform and Religious Turmoil
16. In and Out of the Oxford Movement
VI. "Algebra as the Science of Pure Time"
17. The Foundations of Algebra and the Coleridgean View of Science
18. "Algebra as the Science of Pure time"
19. The Kantian Content of the "Essay on Algebra as the Science of Pure Time"
20. The Equation of the Fifth Degree
VII. Quarternions
21. From Algebraic Couples to Quaternions
22. The Creation of Quarternions
23. The Fate of Quarternions
24. The Hodograph and the Icosian Calculus
VIII. Last Years
25. Catherine Disney Barlow
26. The End of a Career
27. Hamilton and Nineteenth-Century Science
Appendix: The Equations of Conjugation and Logarithms of Number Couples
Abbreviations Used in the Notes
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	25.8.2004
Zusatzinfo	28 Line drawings, black and white; 20 Halftones, black and white
Verlagsort	Baltimore, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	454 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
ISBN-10	0-8018-6973-0 / 0801869730
ISBN-13	978-0-8018-6973-0 / 9780801869730
Zustand	Neuware