Mathematician:Peter Guthrie Tait

Mathematician

Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics.

Best known for the mathematical physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Sir William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin.

Also known for his early investigations into knot theory.

Nationality

Scottish

History

• Born: 28 April 1831 in Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland
• 1847: One session at Edinburgh University
• 1848: Went to Peterhouse College, Cambridge
• 1852: Fellow and Lecturer at Peterhouse
• 1854: Professor of Mathematics at Queens College, Belfast
• 1860: Professorship of Natural Philosophy at University of Edinburgh
• Died: 4 July 1901 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Theorems and Definitions

• Tait Conjectures

Publications

• 1867: Treatise on Natural Philosophy (with Sir William Thomson)

• 1867: Elementary Treatise on Quaternions
  • 1873: Elementary Treatise on Quaternions, 2nd ed.

Notable Quotes

Even Prof. Gibbs must be ranked as one of the retarders of quaternion progress, in virtue of his pamphlet on Vector Analysis, a sort of hermaphrodite monster compounded of the notations of Hamilton and Grassman.

--Preface to third edition of Elementary Treatise on Quaternions

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Peter Guthrie Tait": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1921: C.E. Weatherburn: Elementary Vector Analysis ... (previous) ... (next): Historical Introduction