A gathering in Dublin honours the Irish mathematician, astronomer and physicist whose formula changed the world.
Quaternion numbers do not mean much to most people but in the mathematical world they are very important. The principles of physics are behind many of the things we take for granted, and as Professor Andrew Wiles of Princeton University explains,
If you don't have the mathematics to describe them, then you couldn’t have this modern way of life.
On 16 October 1843 William Rowan Hamilton, mathematician, astronomer and physicist, then resident at Dunsink Observatory, and his wife Helen Maria Bayly were walking along the Royal Canal. William Rowan Hamilton had been working on a mathematical idea for years when inspiration struck that evening and he carved his formula for quaternions into the stonework of Broome Bridge.
For Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre from Maynooth University it is a day to celebrate,
We call it Broomesday.
Mathematicians young and old walk to the bridge every year to commemorate Hamilton. Professor Andrew Wiles is the guest of honour this year. Described as a modern mathematical hero, he solved the centuries-old puzzle of Fermat’s last theorem, which had fascinated him since childhood. He describes his discovery to RTÉ News as,
The most wonderful thing.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 16 October 2003. The reporter is Anne Marie Smyth.
