Percy Alexander MacMahon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Percy A. MacMahon
|
|
|---|---|
Percy Alexander MacMahon
|
|
| Born | 26 September 1854 Sliema, British Malta
|
| Died | 25 December 1929 (aged 75) Bognor Regis, England
|
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | His master theorem |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Percy Alexander MacMahon (born September 26, 1854 – died December 25, 1929) was a mathematician from Britain. He is famous for his work with numbers and counting different ways to arrange things.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Percy MacMahon was born in Malta. His father was a high-ranking officer in the British army. When Percy was 14, he won a special scholarship to Cheltenham College. He attended this school from 1868 to 1870. At 16, MacMahon was accepted into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He finished his studies there after two years.
Military Career
In 1873, MacMahon was sent to Madras, India, as a lieutenant in the army. He was later moved to other places in India, including Lucknow. His last posting was to a mountain battery unit near the North West Frontier. In 1877, he went on sick leave. This break was very important for his future.
Instead of returning to India, MacMahon came back to England in 1878. This change led him to become a mathematician instead of staying a soldier. He continued his military service in England, moving to Dover and then Sheerness. In 1880, he joined an advanced course for army officers at Woolwich. This course covered technical subjects and a foreign language.
After completing the course, MacMahon became a captain in 1881. In 1882, he started working as an instructor at the Royal Military Academy. Here, he met Alfred George Greenhill, a mathematics professor. MacMahon became very interested in the new ideas about algebra that mathematicians like Arthur Cayley and James Joseph Sylvester were developing. In 1891, he took a new job teaching electricity at the Royal Artillery College. He retired from the military in 1898.
Contributions to Mathematics
MacMahon became a member of the Royal Society in 1890. This is a very respected group for scientists. He received several important awards for his work, including the Royal Society Royal Medal in 1900 and the Sylvester Medal in 1919. He was also the President of the London Mathematical Society from 1894 to 1896.
MacMahon is best known for studying symmetric functions and for counting different ways to arrange numbers, especially in plane partitions. His two-volume book, Combinatory Analysis, published in 1915 and 1916, was the first major book about enumerative combinatorics. This field is all about counting the number of ways to do things.
MacMahon also worked on fun math puzzles. He even got patents for some of his successful puzzles. One of his most famous puzzles is called MacMahon Squares. He wrote about it in his 1921 book, New Mathematical Pastimes. This puzzle uses 24 unique squares with colored edges that you have to fit together.
Legacy and Influence
Many people believe that Percy MacMahon was a very important mathematician. Richard P. Stanley, another famous mathematician, considers MacMahon to be the most influential mathematician in the field of enumerative combinatorics before 1960.
Portrayal in Film
Percy MacMahon was shown in the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity. In the film, actor Kevin McNally plays MacMahon. The movie shows the first time MacMahon met Srinivasa Ramanujan, another brilliant mathematician. In this scene, Ramanujan successfully solves some difficult math problems.
