Isaac Todhunter FRS (23 November 1820 – 1 March 1884), was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who is best known today for the books he wrote on mathematics and its history.

Life and work

The son of George Todhunter, a Nonconformist minister, and Mary née Hume, he was born at Rye,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

. He was educated at

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, where his mother had opened a school after the death of his father in 1826. He became an assistant master at a school at

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vil ...

, attending at the same time evening classes at the University College, London where he was influenced by Augustus De Morgan. In 1842 he obtained a mathematical scholarship and graduated as B.A. at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...

, where he was awarded the gold medal on the M.A. examination. About this time he became mathematical master at a school at Wimbledon. In 1844 Todhunter entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, where he was senior wrangler in 1848, and gained the first

Smith's Prize The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1769. Following the reorganization in 1998, they are now awarded under the n ...

and the Burney Prize; and in 1849 he was elected to a fellowship, and began his life of college lecturer and private tutor. In 1862 he was made a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, and in 1865 a member of the Mathematical Society of London. In 1871 he gained the Adams Prize and was elected to the council of the

. He was elected honorary fellow of St John's in 1874, having resigned his fellowship on his marriage in 1864. In 1880 his eyesight began to fail, and shortly afterwards he was attacked with paralysis. He is buried in the Mill Road cemetery, Cambridge.

Personal life

Todhunter married 13 August 1864 Louisa Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Captain (afterwards Admiral) George Davies, R.N. (at that time head of the county constabulary force). He died on 1 March 1884, at his residence, 6 Brookside, Cambridge. A mural tablet and medallion portrait were placed in the ante-chapel of his college by his widow, who, with four sons and one daughter, survived him. He was a sound Latin and Greek scholar, familiar with French, German, Spanish, Italian, and also Russian, Hebrew, and Sanskrit. He was well versed in the history of philosophy, and on three occasions acted as examiner for the moral sciences

tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mat ...

Selected writings

''Treatise on the Differential Calculus and the Elements of the Integral Calculus''
(1852, 6th ed., 1873)
''Treatise on Analytical Statics''
(1853, 4th ed., 1874)
''Treatise on the Integral Calculus''
(1857, 4th ed., 1874) *''Treatise on Algebra'' (1858, 6th ed., 1871)
''Treatise on differential Calculus''''Treatise on Plane Coordinate Geometry''
(1858, 3rd ed., 1861)
''Plane Trigonometry''
(1859, 4th ed., 1869)
''Spherical Trigonometry''
(1859)
''History of the Calculus of Variations''
(1861)
of Equations''
(1861, 2nd ed. 1875)
''Examples of Analytical Geometry of Three Dimensions''
(1858, 3rd ed., 1873)
''Mechanics for Beginners''
(1867) *''A History of the Mathematical Theory of Probability from the Time of Pascal to that of Laplace'' (1865) *''Researches in the Calculus of Variations'' (1871) *''History of the Mathematical Theories of Attraction and Figure of the Earth from Newton to Laplace'' (1873)
''Elementary Treatise on Laplace's, Lamé's and Bessel's Functions''
(1875) *''A history of the theory of elasticity and of the strength of materials from Galilei to the present time ''
'' Vol I PtI ''
https://archive.org/details/historyoftheoryo02todhuoft ''Vol II Pt II''] *''Natural Philosophy for Beginners'' (1877). An unfinished work, ''The History of the Theory of Elasticity'', was edited and published posthumously in 1886 by

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English mathematician and biostatistician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university st ...

. A biographical work on

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved ...

was published in 1876, in addition to many original papers in scientific journals. Todhunter wrote textbooks on

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

and

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. ...

, and a revision of the translation by Robert Simson of

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( grc, Στοιχεῖα ''Stoikheîa'') is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postu ...

, which, with an introduction by Thomas Little Heath, was republished by

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

in 1933. Todhunter's major historical works include a

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of the

Probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expressing it through a set ...

from the time of

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest ...

to that of

Pierre-Simon Laplace Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French scholar and polymath whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics, astronomy, and philosophy. He summarize ...

first published in 1865. Some of these are available a
Isaac Todhunter's publications at Google Books

References

;Attribution

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Todhunter, Isaac People from Rye, East Sussex 1820 births 1884 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of London Fellows of the Royal Society Senior Wranglers 19th-century English mathematicians British historians of mathematics Euclid

Life and work

Personal life

Selected writings

References

Further reading

External links