George Barker Jeffery

George Barker Jeffery (born May 9, 1891 in London , † April 27, 1957 ibid) was a British theoretical physicist , applied mathematician and professor at King's College London and University College London .

Life

Jeffery came from a Quaker family and studied mathematics at University College London from 1909 , where he won a scholarship in the first year and published his first paper in 1912 (on solving the Laplace equation with two charged spheres as sources). He was assistant to LNG Filon, whom he represented in his apprenticeship during World War I. As a Quaker he refused to do military service for religious reasons, he was briefly imprisoned in 1916. In 1922 he became Professor of Mathematics at King's College and in 1924 at University College London as Astor Professor of Pure Mathematics (successor to MJM Hill). His assistant was Edward Charles Titchmarsh .

Although officially a professor of pure mathematics, he only dealt with applied mathematics and theoretical physics. In addition to potential theory, he dealt with hydrodynamics , including the viscosity of liquids (where he treated ellipsoids following the dissertation of Albert Einstein , who had treated spheres as test bodies). He also dealt with exact solutions of the field equations of general relativity and elasticity.

In the late 1920s he turned to administrative and educational activities. From 1945 to 1957 he was director of the University of London Institute of Education and was involved in education in West Africa, which he attended in 1949/50. But he was active in many national education commissions.

In 1926 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . From 1935 to 1937 he was President of the London Mathematical Society .

Fonts

• On a Form of the Solution of Laplace's Equation Suitable for Problems Relating to Two Spheres. In: Proc. Roy. Soc. A. Volume 87, 1912, pp. 109-120.
• The Motion of Ellipsoidal Particles Immersed in a Viscous Fluid. In: Proc. Roy. Soc. A. Vol. 102, 1922, pp. 161-179.
• with OR Baldwin: The Relativity Theory of Plane Waves. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences ,. Volume 111, 1926, pp. 95-104.
• with OR Baldwin: The Relativity Theory of Divergent Waves. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Volume 123, 1929, pp. 119-133.
• Relativity for Physics Students. London: Methuen 1924.
• Translation and editing with Wilfrid Perrett by Albert Einstein , Hendrik Antoon Lorentz , Hermann Minkowski a . a .: The principle of relativity. Methuen, London 1923 and Dover 1952.

literature

• EC Titchmarsh: George Barker Jeffery. Biographical Memoirs Fellows Royal Society, 1958.

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  George Barker Jeffery. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .