The Hamilton Walk from Dunsink Observatory to Broom Bridge on the Royal Canal in Dublin takes place on 16 October each year. This is the anniversary of the day in 1843 when William Rowan Hamilton discovered the non-commutative algebraic system known as quaternions, while walking with his wife along the banks of the Royal Canal. [1] [2]
The walk was launched in 1990 by Prof Tony O'Farrell of the Department of Mathematics at St Patrick's College, Maynooth. [3] It starts at DIAS Dunsink Observatory, where Hamilton lived and was the Director from 1827 to 1865, and ends at the spot where he recorded his discovery by carving the following equation on Broom Bridge: [4]
These are the basic relations which define the quaternions. The original inscription by Hamilton is no longer there, but a plaque erected by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and unveiled by the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera in 1958 marks the spot where he recorded his discovery. [1]
Many prominent mathematicians have attended the event; they include Wolf Prize winner Roger Penrose (2013), Abel Prize and Copley Medal winner Andrew Wiles (2003), Fields Medallists Timothy Gowers (2004) and Efim Zelmanov (2009), and Nobel Prize winners Murray Gell-Mann (2002), Steven Weinberg (2005) and Frank Wilczek (2007). [4]
At the end of the 1990s, O'Farrell's younger colleague Fiacre Ó Cairbre took over the organisation of the walk, but O'Farrell always gives a speech at Broome Bridge. O’Farrell and Ó Cairbre received the 2018 Maths Week Ireland Awarld for "outstanding work in raising public awareness of mathematics" resulting from the founding and nurturing of the Hamilton walk. [3]
It has been argued that the discovery of the quaternions, by revealing deep mathematical structures that did not obey the commutative law, allowed mathematicians to create new systems unbound by the rules of ordinary arithmetic. It follows that the climax of the Hamilton walk at Broom Bridge marks the exact spot where modern algebra was born. [5]
The Hamilton Way is a proposed foot and cycle path that follows the route of the Hamilton Walk, linking DIAS Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Canal.
Sir William Rowan Hamilton LL.D, DCL, MRIA, FRAS was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and a director at Dunsink Observatory.
In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quaternion as the quotient of two directed lines in a three-dimensional space, or, equivalently, as the quotient of two vectors. Multiplication of quaternions is noncommutative.
In mathematics, the Cayley–Dickson construction, named after Arthur Cayley and Leonard Eugene Dickson, produces a sequence of algebras over the field of real numbers, each with twice the dimension of the previous one. The algebras produced by this process are known as Cayley–Dickson algebras, for example complex numbers, quaternions, and octonions. These examples are useful composition algebras frequently applied in mathematical physics.
The National University of Ireland, Maynooth, commonly known as Maynooth University (MU), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. It was Ireland's youngest university until Technological University Dublin was established in 2019, as it was founded by the Universities Act, 1997 from the secular faculties of the now separate St Patrick's College, Maynooth, which was founded in 1795. Maynooth is also the only university town in Ireland, all other universities being based within cities.
The Royal Canal is a canal originally built for freight and passenger transportation from Dublin to Longford in Ireland. It is one of two canals from Dublin to the River Shannon and was built in direct competition to the Grand Canal. The canal fell into disrepair in the late 20th century, but much of it has since been restored for navigation. The length of the canal to the River Shannon was reopened on 1 October 2010, but a final spur branch, to Longford Town, remains closed.
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) is a statutory independent research institute in Ireland. It was established in 1940 on the initiative of the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, in Dublin.
John Lighton Synge was an Irish mathematician and physicist, whose seven-decade career included significant periods in Ireland, Canada, and the USA. He was a prolific author and influential mentor, and is credited with the introduction of a new geometrical approach to the theory of relativity.
Cabra is an inner suburb on the northside of Dublin city in Ireland. It is approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of the city centre, in the administrative area of Dublin City Council. It was commonly known as Cabragh until the early 20th century. Largely located between the Royal Canal and the Phoenix Park, it is primarily a residential suburb, with a range of institutions and some light industry. Cabra is served by bus, tram and mainline rail; it lies across Navan Road, one of the main roads from central Dublin to the orbital motorway.
The Dunsink Observatory is an astronomical observatory established in 1785 in the townland of Dunsink in the outskirts of the city of Dublin, Ireland.
Broom Bridge, also called Broome Bridge, and sometimes Brougham Bridge, is a bridge along Broombridge Road which crosses the Royal Canal in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. Broome Bridge is named after William Broome, one of the directors of the Royal Canal company who lived nearby.
Arthur William Conway FRS was a distinguished Irish mathematician and mathematical physicist who wrote one of the first books on relativity and co-edited two volumes of William Rowan Hamilton's collected works. He also served as President of University College Dublin between 1940 and 1947.
John Thomas Graves was an Irish jurist and mathematician. He was a friend of William Rowan Hamilton, and is credited both with inspiring Hamilton to discover the quaternions in October 1843 and then discovering their generalization the octonions himself later that same year. He was the brother of both the mathematician and bishop Charles Graves and the writer and clergyman Robert Perceval Graves.
In mathematics, quaternions are a non-commutative number system that extends the complex numbers. Quaternions and their applications to rotations were first described in print by Olinde Rodrigues in all but name in 1840, but independently discovered by Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. They find uses in both theoretical and applied mathematics, in particular for calculations involving three-dimensional rotations.
The Quaternion Society was a scientific society, self-described as an "International Association for Promoting the Study of Quaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics". At its peak it consisted of about 60 mathematicians spread throughout the academic world that were experimenting with quaternions and other hypercomplex number systems. The group's guiding light was Alexander Macfarlane who served as its secretary initially, and became president in 1909. The association published a Bibliography in 1904 and a Bulletin from 1900 to 1913.
Charles Jasper Joly was an Irish mathematician and astronomer who became Royal Astronomer of Ireland.
The Andrews Professor of Astronomy is a chair in astronomy in Trinity College Dublin was established in 1783 in conjunction with the establishment of Dunsink Observatory.
William Edwin Hamilton was the elder son of the Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton and Lady Helen Maria Hamilton Bayly.
Luke O’Connor Drury is an Irish mathematician and astrophysicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) with research interests in plasma physics, particle acceleration, gas dynamics, shock waves, and cosmic rays. He was President of the Royal Irish Academy from 2011 to 2014.
Maths Week Ireland (MWI) is an all-island mathematics outreach initiative founded in 2006 by Eoin Gill and Sheila Donegan, based on an idea by Eoin Gill. It is a project of the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology (CALMAST) the STEM outreach centre at Waterford Institute of Technology. It is run by Gill and Donegan who are the directors of CALMAST. In 2019 MWI engaged over 400,000 people on an island with a population of under 7 million and is arguably the world's largest mathematics festival.
Tony O'Farrell is an Irish mathematician who is Professor Emeritus at Maynooth University. He has been in the Mathematics and Statistics Department there since 1975.
