PHYSICIST

William Rowan Hamilton

1805 - 1865

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Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He was Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin. Hamilton was the third director of Dunsink Observatory from 1827 to 1865. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Rowan Hamilton has received more than 1,011,399 page views. His biography is available in 75 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 72 in 2019). William Rowan Hamilton is the 97th most popular physicist (down from 73rd in 2019), the 16th most popular biography from Ireland (down from 13th in 2019) and the most popular Irish Physicist.

William Rowan Hamilton is most famous for his work in mathematics. He is credited with inventing quaternions, a four-dimensional number system.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 73.36

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 75

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 9.09

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.29

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 97 out of 851. Before him are Ernst Ruska, Leo Szilard, Peter Higgs, Emil Lenz, Gustaf Dalén, and Aage Bohr. After him are George Gamow, Owen Willans Richardson, Edward Victor Appleton, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, Dennis Gabor, and François Arago.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1805, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 8. Before him are Joseph Smith, Giuseppe Mazzini, Alexis de Tocqueville, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, and Ferdinand de Lesseps. After him are Fanny Mendelssohn, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Maria Anna of Bavaria, Marie d'Agoult, and Khachatur Abovian. Among people deceased in 1865, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 7. Before him are Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Ignaz Semmelweis, Leopold I of Belgium, and Emil Lenz. After him are Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Johann Franz Encke, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, and Robert FitzRoy.

Others Born in 1805

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Others Deceased in 1865

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In Ireland

Among people born in Ireland, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 16 out of 549. Before him are Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769), Bram Stoker (1847), Edmund Burke (1729), Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet (1819), Pierce Brosnan (1953), and Richard Harris (1930). After him are Anne Bonny (1702), John Scotus Eriugena (810), W. B. Yeats (1865), Columbanus (540), Michael D. Higgins (1941), and Laurence Sterne (1713).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Ireland

Among physicists born in Ireland, William Rowan Hamilton ranks 1. After him are Ernest Walton (1903), John Tyndall (1820), George Francis FitzGerald (1851), George Johnstone Stoney (1826), John Sealy Townsend (1868), and John Joly (1857).

Irish born Physicists

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