Thomas Gerald Room facts for kids

Thomas Gerald Room (born November 10, 1902 – died April 2, 1986) was an Australian mathematician. He is most famous for inventing something called "Room squares." He was also one of the first members of the Australian Academy of Science.

About Thomas Room

Thomas Room was born on November 10, 1902, near London, England. He loved mathematics and studied it at St John's College, Cambridge University. In 1923, he achieved a special honor there called "wrangler," which means he was one of the top math students.

He continued his studies at Cambridge and became a fellow in 1925. However, he first took a job at the University of Liverpool. He returned to Cambridge in 1927 and finished his PhD. He stayed at Cambridge until 1935.

Moving to Australia

In 1935, Thomas Room moved to Australia. He became the head of the Mathematics Department at the University of Sydney. He held this important position for many years, until he retired in 1968.

Work During World War II

During World War II, Thomas Room helped the Australian government. He worked on a secret project to understand Japanese messages. This was called "decrypting" or "code-breaking."

In 1940, he and some friends from the University of Sydney started studying Japanese codes. Room even began learning Japanese himself. Their work was very important for Australia's defense.

Later, Room and his team moved to Melbourne to work with other experts. He even traveled to Singapore to learn more about code-breaking techniques. Their efforts helped the Allies during the war.

After the War

After the war, Room continued his work at the University of Sydney. He served as the dean of the science faculty twice. He also visited other universities, like the University of Washington and Princeton University in the United States.

He retired from Sydney in 1968. Even after retiring, he took short jobs at other colleges in London. He returned to Australia in 1974 and passed away on April 2, 1986.

Thomas Room married Jessica Bannerman in 1937. They had one son and two daughters.

Thomas Room's Discoveries

Thomas Room worked on many different areas of mathematics. His early research looked at complex shapes and patterns in geometry.

In 1938, he wrote a big book called The geometry of determinantal loci. This book was almost 500 pages long! It explored how different geometric shapes can be described using special math tools called "determinants" and "matrices."

Room Squares Explained

After the war, Room started studying other math topics. In the 1960s, he began to look at "finite geometry." This is where he invented "Room squares" in 1955.

So, what is a Room square? Imagine a grid, like a checkerboard. A Room square is an n by n grid. Some of the squares in the grid are filled with pairs of numbers. These numbers are from 0 up to n.

The special rules for a Room square are:

• Each number appears exactly once in every row.
• Each number appears exactly once in every column.
• Every possible pair of numbers appears in exactly one square in the whole grid.

Room showed that a Room square can only exist if n is an odd number. Also, n cannot be 3 or 5. Later, another mathematician named W. D. Wallis proved that Room squares exist for every other odd number.

Even after retiring in 1968, Room kept working on math. In 1971, he published another book with one of his students.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Thomas Room received many honors for his important work in mathematics.

• In 1941, he won the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal. This is a special award from the Australian National Research Council.
• He was also chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very old and respected group of scientists.
• In 1954, he became one of the first members of the Australian Academy of Science.
• From 1960 to 1962, he was the president of the Australian Mathematical Society. He also became the first editor of their math journal.

There is even an award named after him! The T. G. Room award is given to the student who gets the best score in a tough math exam in New South Wales, Australia. This shows how much he inspired future mathematicians.