Duncan Farquharson Gregory (13 April 181323 February 1844) was a Scottish mathematician.

Education

Gregory was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

on 13 April 1813, the youngest son of Isabella Macleod (1772–1847) and James Gregory (1753–1821). He was taught initially by his mother, and in October 1825 he was sent to the

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Ro ...

, and after two years of study spent a winter at a private academy in Geneva. While there his mathematical talent attracted attention, specifically geometry. On his return to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, he attended classes at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

, working at chemistry, making experiments in polarised light, and advancing in the higher parts of mathematics, guided by Professor Wallace, his mentor. In October 1833 he commenced residence at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He earned fifth wrangler in the tripos of 1837. He took the degrees of BA in 1838 and MA in 1841. He was elected fellow of Trinity College in October 1840.

Mathematics

Gregory was initially recognised for his essay ''The Foundations of Algebra'' presented to the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1838. On completing his degrees, he served as Moderator in 1842, examiner through May 1843 and was also appointed assistant tutor. At the suggestion of his friend,

Archibald Smith Archibald Smith of Jordanhill (10 August 1813, in Greenhead, North Lanarkshire – 26 December 1872, in London) was a Scots-born barrister and amateur mathematician. Early life and education He was the only son of James Smith FRSE (178 ...

, he founded and was the first editor of the '' Cambridge Mathematical Journal'' in November 1837, helped by Robert Leslie Ellis who succeeded him as editor. Many of his articles for the ''CMJ'' were collected in ''The Mathematical Writings of D. F. Gregory'', edited by his friend and colleague William Walton. In 1841 he published his ''Examples of the Processes of the Differential and Integral Calculus'', which expanded the earlier work of

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wo ...

, George Peacock and

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

to include the mathematics used to describe discontinuities observed in

heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy ( heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conducti ...

explored by the French mathematician

Joseph Fourier Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (; ; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series, which eventually developed into Fourier analysis and ha ...

, and the theory of undulatory light, a topic familiar to him. He was elected a member of the

Philological Society The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promot ...

12 May 1843.

Other disciplines

Acting as tutor, Gregory was also an examiner of his college and lectured occasionally in chemistry. Two of his papers explored the physics of

pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...

s (

clockmakers A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly t ...

) and were written with Mr.

. (''On the Sympathy of Pendulums'', See pp. 175–86, Mathematical Writings of D.F. Gregory.)

Illness and death

Gregory's circumstances did not allow him to accept the Mathematical Chair at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

offered in 1841. Illness overtook him the next year. Incapacitated, he left Cambridge in the spring of 1843, and died in Edinburgh the following February, at 30 years of age. Gregory is buried with his siblings in his parents burial plot in the south-west corner of

Canongate Kirkyard The Canongate Kirkyard ( en, Churchyard) stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. The churchyard was used for burials from the late 1680s until the mid-20th century. The most celebrated burials at the kirkyard are ...

, next to

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

Family

Gregory never married. He was the youngest son of eleven children. His older brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, like his father, was a chemist and physician. His great-great-grandfather James Gregory, the mathematician, designed the

Gregorian telescope The Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory in the 17th century, and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke. James Gregory was a contemporary of Isaac Newton. Both oft ...

. James's nephew, David Gregory, was appointed a professor of mathematics at the

in 1683. Gregory lived together with his brothers and their wives in a huge Georgian townhouse, 10 Ainslie Place, on the Moray Estate in the western

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

of Edinburgh, originally their father's house.

Published works

* Presentations made to the

Cambridge Philosophical Society The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of l ...

.Proceedings C.P.S., ''The Foundation and Early years of the Society'' by John Willis Clark, delivered 27 October 1890, pp. xliii. xliv. (Cambridge, 1892). *# 'On the real nature of symbolical algebra' – 14 May 1838. *# 'On the logarithms of negative quantities' – 26 November 1838. *# 'On photogenic drawings' – 22 April 1839 *# 'On chemical classification' – 6 May 1839
''The Mathematical Writings of D. F. Gregory, M.A.''
Ed. W. Walton, (Cambridge, 1865).

Notes

References

*
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
vol. vii. October 28, 1889May 30, 1892, (Cambridge, 1892). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Duncan Farquharson 1813 births 1844 deaths People from Aberdeen People educated at Edinburgh Academy Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Scottish mathematicians Burials at the Canongate Kirkyard