William Kingdon Clifford
William Clifford | |
|---|---|
Likeness, from the frontispiece of Lectures and Essays by the Late William Kingdon Clifford, F.R.S. (1901) | |
| Born | 4 May 1845 Exeter, Devon, England |
| Died | 3 March 1879 (aged 33) Madeira, Portugal |
| Alma mater | King's College London Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Clifford algebra Clifford's circle theorems Clifford's theorem Clifford torus Clifford–Klein form Clifford parallel Bessel–Clifford function Dual quaternion Elements of Dynamic |
| Spouse | Lucy Clifford (1875–1879) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University College London |
| Doctoral students | Arthur Black |
| Signature | |
William Kingdon Clifford (4 May 1845 – 3 March 1879) was a British mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra. This is a special case of what later became known as the Clifford algebra, which was named in his honour. The operations of geometric algebra have the effect of mirroring, rotating, translating, and mapping the geometric objects that are being modelled to new positions. Clifford algebras in general and geometric algebra in particular have been of ever increasing importance to mathematical physics, geometry, and computing. Clifford was the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry. In his philosophical writings he coined the expression mind-stuff.