6 | Path to east end: Ireland’s greatest scientist

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65)

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65), left an important scientific legacy that includes the Hamiltonian (a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, and used daily by engineers, physicists and even economists); conic refraction (which he predicted), and quaternion algebra, now used in computer graphics and to orient satellites.A child prodigy with a talent for languages, he retained his love of poetry all his life and would write sonnets for every occasion.

His invention of quaternions is marked every October 16th, with a memorial walk, lecture, and a festival of mathematics.Dunsink Observatory, where he spent all his professional life, is open to the public on winter nights.

Download MP3

• Track 06 | Ireland's greatest scientist (6 mins) [MP3, 5.61mB]