PHYSICIST

William Rowan Hamilton

1805 - 1865

Photo of William Rowan Hamilton

Icon of person William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who made numerous major contributions to abstract algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathematical equations are considered fundamental to modern theoretical physics, particularly his reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics. His career included the analysis of geometrical optics, Fourier analysis, and quaternions, the last of which made him one of the founders of modern linear algebra. Hamilton was Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. William Rowan Hamilton is the 128th most popular physicist (down from 97th in 2019), the 22nd most popular biography from Ireland (down from 16th in 2019) and the most popular Irish Physicist.

William Rowan Hamilton is most famous for his work in mathematics. He is credited with inventing quaternions, a four-dimensional number system.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of William Rowan Hamilton by language

Loading...

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 128 out of 851. Before him are Owen Chamberlain, Anders Jonas Ångström, Joseph von Fraunhofer, Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, Alfred Kastler, and Josiah Willard Gibbs. After him are Arthur Compton, Simon van der Meer, James Rainwater, Carl Zeiss, Hans Bethe, and James Franck.

Most Popular Physicists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1805, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 7. Before him are Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph Smith, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Giuseppe Mazzini. After him are Ferdinand de Lesseps, Maria Anna of Bavaria, Fanny Mendelssohn, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and Marie d'Agoult. Among people deceased in 1865, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 6. Before him are Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Ignaz Semmelweis, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Leopold I of Belgium. After him are Emil Lenz, Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, Johann Franz Encke, William Jackson Hooker, and Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston.

Others Born in 1805

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1865

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Ireland

Among people born in Ireland, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 22 out of 549. Before him are Michael Gambon (1940), Francis Bacon (1909), Eddie Jordan (1948), Sinéad O'Connor (1966), George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (1449), and Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769). After him are Pierce Brosnan (1953), Grace O'Malley (1530), J. D. Bernal (1901), W. B. Yeats (1865), G. E. M. Anscombe (1919), and Anne Bonny (1702).

Others born in Ireland

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among PHYSICISTS In Ireland

Among physicists born in Ireland, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 1. After him are George Francis FitzGerald (1851), Ernest Walton (1903), John Tyndall (1820), George Johnstone Stoney (1826), John Sealy Townsend (1868), and John Joly (1857).

Irish born Physicists

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous