Alexander Brown FRSE

FRSSAf The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...

(1878–1947) was a Scottish-born mathematician and educator in South Africa. He contributed to the study of the ratio of incommensurables in geometry and relations between the distances of a point from three vertices of a

regular polygon In Euclidean geometry, a regular polygon is a polygon that is direct equiangular (all angles are equal in measure) and equilateral (all sides have the same length). Regular polygons may be either convex, star or skew. In the limit, a sequence ...

Career

Brown was born in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, Scotland on 5 May 1878. He attended Newton Public School and then

George Watson's College George Watson's College is a co-educational independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a hospital school in 1741, became a day school in 1871, and was merg ...

, where he was the winner of the Wright Bursary in his final year. He matriculated at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1893 where he obtained a MA (Mathematics and Natural Science)(''First Class'') and a BSc (Mathematics and Natural Science)(''Special Distinction'') in 1897. While at Edinburgh University he held the first Heriot Bursary and Mackay Smith scholarship. On completion of his degrees he won the Vans Dunlop scholarship, the Baxter scholarship and the Drummond scholarship. He was mathematical master at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is an independent, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only priv ...

from 1897 to 1899. In 1899 he won the Ferguson Scholarship in Mathematics and he went to

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

where he obtained a First Class in Mathematics in 1902. In 1903 he became Deputy Professor of Applied Mathematics and Physics for one year at the South African College,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

in the absence of the holder of the chair,

Carruthers Beattie Sir John Carruthers Beattie (21 November 1866 – 10 June 1946) was the first principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (1918–1937). Beattie was born in Waterbeck, Scotland. He graduated from Edinburgh University ha ...

, who was on a year-long magnetic survey of South Africa. In recognition of Brown's exceptional work during that year the College Council split the Chair and Beattie was offered the professorship of Physics while Brown was offered the professorship of Mathematics. He retained this position until his death on 27 January 1947. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1907. His proposers were

George Chrystal George Chrystal FRSE FRS (8 March 1851 – 3 November 1911) was a Scottish mathematician. He is primarily know for his books on algebra and his studies of seiches (wave patterns in large inland bodies of water) which earned him a Gold Meda ...

Arthur John Pressland Arthur John Pressland (1865–1934) was a British educational theorist, linguist, schoolmaster and writer.Obituary in ''The Times'' by Sir Michael Sadler, ''Mr A. J. Pressland'', Thursday 11 October 1934, p.19 He was for most of his life a mat ...

, John Sturgeon Mackay and John Alison. In 1918 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa.

Personal life

He married Mary Graham in 1911 and they had a daughter and a son. In his leisure time he was a great reader and a keen musician.

Works

He contributed to the study of the ratio of incommensurables in geometry and relations between the distances of a point from three vertices of a regular polygon. His paper on this subject was read before the Edinburgh Mathematical Society on 11 June 1909.

Selected publications

*Brown, A. (1905) "Convergence of a Reversed Power Series" ''British Association Report'' *Brown, A. (1907) "Examination of the Validity of an Approximate Solution of a Certain Velocity Equation" ''Transaction of the South African Philosophical Society'', vol xvi, pt. 3 *Brown, A. (1916) "The Equivalent Mass of a Spring Vibrating Longitudinally" ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'' vol. v, p. 565. *Brown, A. (1916) "The Arrangement of Successive Convergents in the Order of Accuracy" ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'' vol. v, p. 653. *Brown, A. (1916) "The Use of a Standard Parabola for Drawing Diagrams of Bending Moment and of Shear in a Beam Uniformly Loaded" ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa'' vol. v, p. 659.

External links

Alexander Brown Obituary notice in ''Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa''
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Alexander 1878 births 1947 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa British mathematicians 19th-century Scottish mathematicians 20th-century Scottish people Academic staff of the University of Cape Town Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge British emigrants to the Cape Colony