Peter Guthrie Tait
Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Lord Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory.
Peter Guthrie Tait
28 April 1831
4 July 1901 (aged 70)
- Smith's Prize (1852)
- Keith Medal (1867–69)
- Royal Medal (1886)
His work on knot theory contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture on cubic graphs. He is also one of the namesakes of the Tait–Kneser theorem on osculating circles.
Early life[edit]
Tait was born in Dalkeith on 28 April 1831 the only son of Mary Ronaldson and John Tait, secretary to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch.[1]
He was educated at Dalkeith Grammar School then Edinburgh Academy. He studied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1852.[2]
As a fellow and lecturer of his college he remained at the University for a further two years, before leaving to take up the professorship of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast. There he made the acquaintance of Thomas Andrews, whom he joined in researches on the density of ozone and the action of the electric discharge on oxygen and other gases, and by whom he was introduced to Sir William Rowan Hamilton and quaternions.
Death[edit]
He died in Edinburgh on 4 July 1901, aged 70. He is buried in the second terrace down from Princes Street in the burial ground of St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.
Topology[edit]
The Tait conjectures are three conjectures made by Tait in his study of knots. The Tait conjectures involve concepts in knot theory such as alternating knots, chirality, and writhe. All of the Tait conjectures have been solved, the most recent being the Flyping conjecture, proved by Morwen Thistlethwaite and William Menasco in 1991.
