QuaternionsIn 1843, the theory of quaternions was born when a sudden thought came to William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) as he was walking with his wife along the Royal Canal in Dublin, Ireland. (He had been working since the late 1830s on the basic principles of algebra, resulting in a theory of conjugate functions, or algebraic couples, in which complex numbers are expressed as ordered pairs of real numbers. Until now, he had not been successful in developing a theory of triplets that could be applied to three-dimensional geometric problems.) During the walk, he realized that the theory should involve quadruplets, not triplets. His excitement at his discovery caused him to pause and carve the underlying equations in a nearby bridge. |
