Peter Guthrie Tait



Peter Guthrie Tait (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory, which contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline.

Quotes

 * Oh, that's nothing – I could coach a coal scuttle to be Senior Wrangler.
 * when complimented about coaching his one pupil scoring higher than his rival's pupils at Peterhouse Tripos, as quoted by


 * [Examiners] spend their lives in discovering which pages of a text-book a man ought to read and which will not be likely to 'pay'.
 * in an address to the University of Edinburgh graduates, as quoted by


 * The next grand extensions of mathematical physics will, in all likelihood, be furnished by quaternions.
 * in Note on a Quaternion Transformation , Communication read on Monday, 6th April, 1863, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1866), p. 117.