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Science - Quarternions - William Hamilton

I then and there felt the galvanic circuit of thought close, and the sparks which fell from it were the fundamental equations between i, j, k; exactly such as I have used them ever since - William Hamilton - letter to his son, 1865

Index

William Hamilton's background

What makes William Hamilton such a great example?

William Hamilton's background

William Hamilton was an Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer, Royal Astronomer of Ireland from the age of 22, who made major contributions to optics and classical mechanics, reformulating Newtonian mechanics into what is now called Hamiltonian mechanics, a framework still central to physics. He is best remembered for his discovery of quaternions, an extension of complex numbers to four dimensions, which he arrived at in a sudden flash of insight while walking with his wife along the Royal Canal in Dublin on 16 October 1843.

What makes William Hamilton such a great example?

Discovery of Quarternions by William Hamilton

The discovery of quarternions by William Hamilton was also accompanied by a conjunction of Mars and Saturn

The transits at the time of William Hamilton's discovery of were

Transiting Mars square William Hamilton's Uranus

Transiting Jupiter trine William Hamilton's Uranus

Transiting Neptune trine William Hamilton's Uranus

The chart shown is William Hamilton's birthchart, together with transits for his 1843 discovery of quaternions around the outside. Aspect lines [traditional] are between the transits and his birthchart.