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Peter Tait (physicist)
Peter Guthrie Tait (28 April 18314 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote with Lord Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory. His work on knot theory contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture. He is also one of the namesakes of the Tait–Kneser theorem on osculating circles. Early life Tait was born in Dalkeith on 28 April 1831 the only son of Mary Ronaldson and John Tait, secretary to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. He was educated at Dalkeith Grammar School then Edinburgh Academy. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1852. As a fellow and lecturer of his college he remained at the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dalkeith
Dalkeith ( ; gd, Dail Cheith, IPA: ˆt̪alˈçe is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540. The settlement of Dalkeith grew southwestwards from its 12th-century castle (now Dalkeith Palace). Dalkeith has a population of 12,342 people according to the 2011 census. The town is divided into four distinct areas: Dalkeith proper with its town centre and historic core; Eskbank (considered to be the well-heeled neighbourhood of Dalkeith with many large Victorian and newer houses) to its west; Woodburn (primarily a working class council estate with pockets of new housing developments) to its east; and Newbattle (a semi-rural village with its abbey) to the south. Dalkeith is the main administrative centre for Midlothian. It is twinned with Jarnac, France. In 2004, Midlothian Council re-paved Jarnac Court in honour of Dalkeith and Jarnac's long standing link. On the north-eastern edge of Dalkeith at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treatise On Natural Philosophy
''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' was an 1867 text book by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Peter Guthrie Tait, published by Oxford University Press. The ''Treatise'' was often referred to as T and ''T^1'', as explained by Alexander Macfarlane:A. Macfarlane (1917Lectures on Ten British Physicist of the Nineteenth Century link form Internet Archive. :Maxwell had facetiously referred to Thomson as T and Tait as T^1. Hence the ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'' came to be commonly referred to as T ''and T^1'' in conversation with mathematicians. Reception The first volume was received by an enthusiastic review in Saturday Review (London), Saturday Review: :The grand result of all concurrent research in modern times has been to confirm what was but perhaps a dream of genius, or an instinct of the keen Greek intellect, that all the operations of nature are rooted and grounded in number and figure. The Treatise was also reviewed as ''Elements ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozone
Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lower atmosphere to (dioxygen). Ozone is formed from dioxygen by the action of ultraviolet (UV) light and electrical discharges within the Earth's atmosphere. It is present in very low concentrations throughout the latter, with its highest concentration high in the ozone layer of the stratosphere, which absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ozone's odour is reminiscent of chlorine, and detectable by many people at concentrations of as little as in air. Ozone's O3 structure was determined in 1865. The molecule was later proven to have a bent structure and to be weakly diamagnetic. In standard conditions, ozone is a pale blue gas that condenses at cryogenic temperatures to a dark blue liquid and finally a violet-black soli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Andrews (scientist)
Thomas Andrews FRS FRSE (19 December 181326 November 1885) was an Irish chemist and physicist who did important work on phase transitions between gases and liquids. He was a longtime professor of chemistry at Queen's University of Belfast. Life Andrews was born in Belfast, Ireland, where his father was a linen merchant. He attended the Belfast Academy and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where at the latter of which he studied mathematics under James Thomson. In 1828 he went to the University of Glasgow to study chemistry under Professor Thomas Thomson, then studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained distinction in classics as well as in science. Finally, at University of Edinburgh in 1835, he was awarded a doctorate in medicine. Andrews began a successful medical practice in his native Belfast in 1835, also giving instruction in chemistry at the Academical Institution. In 1845 he was appointed vice-president of the newly established Queen's University of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen's College, Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = , affiliation = , religious_affiliation = , academic_affiliation = , endowment = £70.0 million , budget = £395.8 million , rector = , officer_in_charge = , chairman = , chairperson = , chancellor = Hillary Clinton , president = , vice-president = , superintendent = , vice_chancellor = Ian Greer , provost = , principal = , dean = , director = , head_label = , head = , academic_staff = 2,414 , administrative_staff = 1,489 , students = () , undergrad = () , postgrad = () , doctoral = , other = 2,250 (Colleges) , address = , city = Belfast , state = , province = , postalcode = , country = Northern Ireland , campus = Urban , language = , free_label = Newspaper , free = ''The Go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smith's Prize
The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1769. Following the reorganization in 1998, they are now awarded under the names Smith-Knight Prize and Rayleigh-Knight Prize. History The Smith Prize fund was founded by bequest of Robert Smith upon his death in 1768, having by his will left £3,500 of South Sea Company stock to the University. Every year two or more junior Bachelor of Arts students who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy were to be awarded a prize from the fund. The prize was awarded every year from 1769 to 1998 except 1917. From 1769 to 1885, the prize was awarded for the best performance in a series of examinations. In 1854 George Stokes included an examination question on a particular theorem that William Thomson had written to him about, which is now known as Stokes' theorem. T. W. Körner notes Only a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senior Wrangler
The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who achieves the highest overall mark among the Wranglers – the students at Cambridge who gain first-class degrees in mathematics. The Cambridge undergraduate mathematics course, or Mathematical Tripos, is famously difficult. Many Senior Wranglers have become world-leading figures in mathematics, physics, and other fields. They include George Airy, Jacob Bronowski, Christopher Budd, Kevin Buzzard, Arthur Cayley, Donald Coxeter, Arthur Eddington, Ben Green, John Herschel, James Inman, J. E. Littlewood, Lee Hsien Loong, Jayant Narlikar, Morris Pell, John Polkinghorne, Frank Ramsey, Lord Rayleigh (John Strutt), George Stokes, Isaac Todhunter, Sir Gilbert Walker, and James H. Wilkinson. Senior Wranglers were once fêted with torchlit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edinburgh Academy
The Edinburgh Academy is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Road to the north of the city's Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Botanic Garden. The Edinburgh Academy was originally a day and boarding school for boys. It ceased boarding and transitioned to co-education in 2008 and is now a fully coeducational day school. The nursery, housed in a 2008 purpose built block on the Junior campus, caters for children from age 2 to 5. The Junior School admits children from age 6 to 10 whilst the Senior School takes pupils from age 10 to 18. Foundation In 1822, the school's founders, Henry Thomas Cockburn, Henry Cockburn and Leonard Horner, agreed that Edinburgh required a new school to promote Classics, classical learning. Edinburgh's Royal High Sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke Of Buccleuch
Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, 7th Duke of Queensberry, (born Walter Francis Montagu-Scott; 25 November 1806 – 16 April 1884), styled Lord Eskdail between 1808 and 1812 and Earl of Dalkeith between 1812 and 1819, was a prominent Scottish nobleman, landowner and politician. He was Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1842 to 1846 and Lord President of the Council. Background and education Buccleuch was born at the Palace of Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, the fifth child of seven, and second son of Charles Montagu-Scott, 4th Duke of Buccleuch, and Hon. Harriet Katherine Townshend, daughter of Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney and Elizabeth Powys. When his older brother, George Henry, died at the age of 10 from measles, Walter became heir apparent to the Dukedoms of Buccleuch and Queensberry. He was only thirteen when he succeeded his father to the Dukedoms of Buccleuch and Queensberry in 1819. He was educated at Eton and St John's C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osculating Circle
In differential geometry of curves, the osculating circle of a sufficiently smooth plane curve at a given point ''p'' on the curve has been traditionally defined as the circle passing through ''p'' and a pair of additional points on the curve infinitesimally close to ''p''. Its center lies on the inner normal line, and its curvature defines the curvature of the given curve at that point. This circle, which is the one among all tangent circles at the given point that approaches the curve most tightly, was named ''circulus osculans'' (Latin for "kissing circle") by Leibniz. The center and radius of the osculating circle at a given point are called center of curvature and radius of curvature of the curve at that point. A geometric construction was described by Isaac Newton in his '' Principia'': Nontechnical description Imagine a car moving along a curved road on a vast flat plane. Suddenly, at one point along the road, the steering wheel locks in its present position. Thereaf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tait's Conjecture
In mathematics, Tait's conjecture states that "Every 3-connected planar cubic graph has a Hamiltonian cycle (along the edges) through all its vertices". It was proposed by and disproved by , who constructed a counterexample with 25 faces, 69 edges and 46 vertices. Several smaller counterexamples, with 21 faces, 57 edges and 38 vertices, were later proved minimal by . The condition that the graph be 3-regular is necessary due to polyhedra such as the rhombic dodecahedron, which forms a bipartite graph with six degree-four vertices on one side and eight degree-three vertices on the other side; because any Hamiltonian cycle would have to alternate between the two sides of the bipartition, but they have unequal numbers of vertices, the rhombic dodecahedron is not Hamiltonian. The conjecture was significant, because if true, it would have implied the four color theorem: as Tait described, the four-color problem is equivalent to the problem of finding 3-edge-colorings of bridgeless ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graph Theory
In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are connected by '' edges'' (also called ''links'' or ''lines''). A distinction is made between undirected graphs, where edges link two vertices symmetrically, and directed graphs, where edges link two vertices asymmetrically. Graphs are one of the principal objects of study in discrete mathematics. Definitions Definitions in graph theory vary. The following are some of the more basic ways of defining graphs and related mathematical structures. Graph In one restricted but very common sense of the term, a graph is an ordered pair G=(V,E) comprising: * V, a set of vertices (also called nodes or points); * E \subseteq \, a set of edges (also called links or lines), which are unordered pairs of vertices (that is, an edge is associated with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
