William Rowan Hamilton was a physicist and mathematician who was a native of Dublin, Ireland. He is best known as the inventor of Quaternions. On October 16th 1843 whilst walking with his wife along the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin he realised that the solution to three-dimensional geometry was in quadruplets. He carved his equation (i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = −1) onto a stone on Broom Bridge with his penknife. His invention is used in areas such as computer graphics and control theory.
William Rowan Hamilton was born in Dublin in 1805. At the age of 18 he entered Trinity College Dublin where he studied classics and mathematics. He was awarded an MA in 1837 and was appointed Professor of Astronomy. Following his appointment he resided at Dunsink Observatory in Castleknock, Dublin. He died aged 60 in 1865.
William Rowan Hamilton, mathematician and astronomer, was born in Dublin in the year 1805 On This Day.
William Rowan Hamilton