Great Astronomers: William Rowan Hamilton Robert Stawell Ball

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was an Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who made important contributions to mechanics, optics, and algebra. As a teenager, he mastered parts of Newton's Principia and studied Laplace's celestial mechanics treatise. When barely 22, Hamilton became a professor of astronomy at University of Dublin, however he was more interested in theoretical rather than practical astronomy. His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover new mathematical concepts and techniques. His greatest contribution is perhaps the reformulation of Newtonian mechanics, now called Hamiltonian mechanics. This work has proven central to the modern study of classical field theories such as electromagnetism, and to the development of quantum mechanics.

Author: Robert Ball, Paula Benitez

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Apr 01, 2017

Number of Pages: 26 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1545081239

ISBN-13: 9781545081235