There's a chance to follow in the footsteps of one of the country's topmathematicians, William Rowan Hamilton and see where he traced out a groundbreakingmathematical formula on a Dublin bridge. Dick Ahlstrom reports.......................................'Quaternions opened up a whole new mathematical landscapeand opened the way to remarkable discoveries'.......................................
PLANS are well advanced for the annual guided walk along the Royal Canal that commemorates one of Ireland's most famous mathematicians, William Rowan Hamilton. It takes place each October 16th to mark the day in 1843 that Hamilton created "quaternions" in a flash of inspiration.
Each year, the mathematics department at NUI Maynooth marks the event by retracing Hamilton's steps. His momentous walk began at Dunsink Observatory, where Hamilton was director, and headed south to the Royal Canal before going east along the canal to end up at Broombridge train station. There a plaque marks the place where Hamilton, struck with the idea for a completely new form of four-dimensional mathematics, scratched his formulas for quaternions on the bridge supports. It is a pleasant three-mile walk, but it also takes note of one of the world's major mathematical discoveries by a leading Irish scientist.
"Quaternions opened up a whole new mathematical landscape," says Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre, who, with Dr Gary McGuire of NUI Maynooth organises the walk. Quaternions represented a "totally new concept" in mathematics and opened the way to remarkable discoveries by others who used Hamilton's mathematics, says Ó Cairbre.
They were central to James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic waves in 1864. This theory ultimately led to the invention of the first wireless telegraph by Marconi in 1895 and then radio and television. Quaternions helped Erwin Schrödinger develop his theories on quantum mechanics.
More recently, quaternions are playing a key role in computer graphics and the design of computer games. Quaternions allow very complex figures to move on screen and the famous character, Lara Croft (left), came to life in the computer game Tomb Raider thanks to the mathematical invention provided by Hamilton.
Hamilton has been called the "liberator of algebra" because his quaternions shattered the accepted convention that a useful algebraic number system should satisfy the rules of ordinary numbers in arithmetic. Quaternions allowed mathematicians to conceive new algebraic number systems that were not shackled by the rules of ordinary numbers, Ó Cairbre explains.
As part of his visit to Dublin to deliver the Irish Times/Royal Irish Academy Hamilton Lecture, Nobel laureate Prof Murray Gell-Mann (see above) will participate in this year's walk along the canal. It is free and open to all who are interested in this great Irish mathematician.
To book a place on the walk on October 16th, contact Dr Ó Cairbre or Dr McGuire at Maynooth at 01- 7083914 for details.