Thomas Muir (mathematician)
Sir Thomas Muir (born August 25, 1844 in Stonebyres , Lanarkshire , † March 21, 1934 in Rondebosch , South Africa ) was a Scottish mathematician who dealt with determinants .
Life
Muir was the son of a shoemaker and grew up in Biggar . At the school in Wishaw he developed a taste for ancient Greek and began studying it at Glasgow University , but under the influence of Lord Kelvin he turned to mathematics. In 1868 he became a tutor at the University of St. Andrews and made a study trip to Berlin, among other places. In 1871 he became an assistant at the University of Glasgow and in 1874 a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . From 1874 to 1892 he was a math and science teacher at Glasgow High School. In 1892 he went to Cape Town as Superintendant for General Education and reformed the school system on behalf of Cecil Rhodes . In 1897 he became Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town. In 1915 he retired and wrote his five-volume work on the history of determinants.
In 1884 he was president of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, which had been founded the year before. In 1900 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . He was honorary doctor of the University of Cape Town and the University of Glasgow (1882) and from 1910 President of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1884 and 1899 he received the Keith Medal and in 1916 the Gunning Victoria Prize. In 1901 he was honored as a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George , in 1915 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . He was a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope .
In 1876 he married Margaret Bell, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.
literature
- Pieter Maritz: Sir Thomas Muir, 1844-1934, Linear Algebra and its Applications, Volume 411, 2005, pp. 3-67
- HWT: Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, Volume 1, 1934, pp. 179-184
Fonts
- Treatise on the theory of determinants, Macmillan 1882, Dover reissue 1960
- History of determinants, Macmillan, Volumes 1 through 5, 1906-1929
- Volume 1 appeared in 1890 and revised in 1906 and deals with the history of Leibniz up to 1840, Volume 2 appeared in 1911, Volume 3 in 1920, Volume 4 in 1923 and Volume 5 in 1929
- Reprinted in 4 volumes by Dover 1960
- Contributions to the history of determinants, 1930
Web links
- John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Thomas Muir (mathematician). In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
- Thomas Muir in the Biographical Database of Southern African Science
- Obituary in Nature. Volume 132, 1933, p. 271
- Muir, Sir Thomas in Former Fellows if the Royal Society Edinburgh. (PDF; 1.7 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ information pursuant McTutor
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Muir, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 25, 1844 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stonebyres , Lanarkshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 21, 1934 |
| Place of death | Rondebosch , South Africa |