In the early 1900s, a great mathematician was expected to c… - William Rowan Hamilton

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In the early 1900s, a great mathematician was expected to comprehend the whole of known mathematics. Mathematics was a shallow pool. Today the mathematical waters have grown so deep that a great mathematician can know only about 5% of the entire corpus. What will the future of mathematics be as specialized mathematicians know more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing?

William Rowan Hamilton

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About William Rowan Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover new mathematical concepts and techniques. His greatest contribution is perhaps the reformulation of Newtonian mechanics, now called Hamiltonian mechanics. This work has proven central to the modern study of classical field theories such as electromagnetism, and to the development of quantum mechanics. In mathematics, he is perhaps best known for his discovery of quaternions.

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Alternative Names: Sir William Rowan Hamilton • Hamilton Mathematics Institute • Hamilton

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Originators like William Rowan Hamilton:

Carl Friedrich Gauss Isaac Barrow Hermann Weyl John Wallis James Clerk Maxwell

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Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.

Pierre Louis Maupertuis, Les Loix du Mouvement et du Repos, déduites d'un Principe Métaphysique (1746).

The element of play, which makes recreational mathematics recreational, may take many forms: a puzzle to be solved, a competitive game, a magic trick, paradox, fallacy, or simply mathematics with any sort of curious or amusing fillip.

In the early 1900s, a great mathematician was expected to comprehend the whole of known mathematics. Mathematics was a shallow pool. Today the mathem… - William Rowan Hamilton

About William Rowan Hamilton

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