Arthur Cayley (nonfiction)
Arthur Cayley F.R.S. (/ˈkeɪli/; 16 August 1821 – 26 January 1895) was a British mathematician. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics.
As a child, Cayley enjoyed solving complex maths problems for amusement. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he excelled in Greek, French, German, and Italian, as well as mathematics. He worked as a lawyer for 14 years.
On October 3, 1842, Cayley was admitted to fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, at age 21, younger than any other fellow at the College.
He postulated the Cayley–Hamilton theorem—that every square matrix is a root of its own characteristic polynomial, and verified it for matrices of order 2 and 3.
He was the first to define the concept of a group in the modern way—as a set with a binary operation satisfying certain laws. Formerly, when mathematicians spoke of "groups", they had meant permutation groups. Cayley's theorem is named in honor of Cayley.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- H. F. Baker (nonfiction) - Student
- Carl Wilhelm Borchardt (nonfiction)
- Cayley's mousetrap (nonfiction)
- George Cayley (nonfiction) - Cousin
- Andrew Forsyth (nonfiction) - Student
- William Hopkins (nonfiction) - Academic advisor
- Mathematician (nonfiction)
- Mathematics (nonfiction)
- George Peacock (nonfiction) - Academic advisor
- Charlotte Scott (nonfiction) - Student
- James Joseph Sylvester (nonfiction) - Friend
External links:
- Arthur Cayley @ Wikipedia