University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
Routh attended University College, London in 1847, where he fell under the influence of Augustus de Morgan, and after graduating with the Bachelor of Arts there in 1849.
Gallery of Edward Routh
Peterhouse, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Routh obtained his Master of Arts degree from Peterhouse in 1853, being awarded at that time the Gold Medals for Mathematics and for Natural Philosophy.
Gallery of Edward Routh
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
In 1883 Routh shared with his friend W. H. Besant the distinction of being the first to graduate Doctor of Science at the University of Cambridge.
Career
Achievements
A portrait of Edward John Routh
Membership
Royal Society of London
1872 - 1907
Royal Society, London, England, United Kingdom
Routh was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1872.
London Mathematical Society
1865 - 1907
London Mathematical Society, London, England, WC1 United Kingdom
Routh was an original member of the London Mathematical Society in 1865.
Royal Astronomical Society
1866 - 1907
Royal Astronomical Society, Piccadilly, London, England, United Kingdom
Routh was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866.
Edward John Routh (20 January 1831 – 7 June 1907), was an English mathematician, noted as the outstanding coach of students preparing for the Mathematical Tripos examination of the University of Cambridge.
University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
Routh attended University College, London in 1847, where he fell under the influence of Augustus de Morgan, and after graduating with the Bachelor of Arts there in 1849.
Peterhouse, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Routh obtained his Master of Arts degree from Peterhouse in 1853, being awarded at that time the Gold Medals for Mathematics and for Natural Philosophy.
Edward John Routh was a prominent British mathematician. He is famous for his published advanced treatises which became standard applied mathematics texts such as A Treatise on Dynamics of Rigid Bodies (1860), A Treatise on Analytic Statistics (1891), and A Treatise on Dynamics of a Particle (1898).
Background
Edward John Routh was born on January 20, 1831, in Quebec, Canada. His parents were Sir Randolph Isham Routh, a high-ranking army officer and his second wife, Marie Louise Taschereau. His father was born in Poole, Dorset, England, in 1787.
Education
At the age of eleven, Routh came to England in 1842 and attended University College School, London. He subsequently attended University College, London in 1847, where he fell under the influence of Augustus de Morgan, and after graduating with the Bachelor of Arts there in 1849, he matriculated as a pensioner at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
He entered Peterhouse on 1 June 1850 and obtained his Master of Arts in 1853, being awarded at that time the Gold Medals for Mathematics and for Natural Philosophy. In 1883 he shared with his friend W. H. Besant the distinction of being the first to graduate Doctor of Science at the University of Cambridge.
Elected to a fellowship of Peterhouse in 1855, Routh thenceforth dedicated himself to the task of preparing undergraduates for the public examinations of the University of Cambridge. He was an inspiring teacher and became the most famous of the great Cambridge “coaches.” His success in coaching students for the mathematical tripos may be gauged by the fact that twenty-seven of his students were senior wranglers and more than forty of them were Smith’s prizemen.
In 1857 the post of the first assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory became vacant and Routh was invited by Airy, the Astronomer Royal, to visit the Observatory so that he might be offered the post. He did go to the Observatory but decided that he would prefer not to accept the post there, but rather remain at Cambridge.
His gift for lucid exposition is also evidenced by his authorship of a set of advanced treatises that were destined to become the standard texts of classical applied mathematics. The first, and probably the most famous, of these was the two-volume A Treatise on Dynamics... of Rigid Bodies (I860); by the time of the author’s death, this had gone to a seventh edition and, in German translation, had the distinction of a foreword by Felix Klein. This was followed by A Treatise on Analytical Statistics... (1891) and A Treatise on the Dynamics of a Particle (1898). Routh was coauthor (with H. W. Watson) of Solutions of Senate House Problems (1860).
His theorem of the “modified Lagrangian function” was one of the most significant contributions to the mechanics of his time. It was contained in the Treatise on the Stability of a Given State of Motion, Particularly Steady Motion (1877) for which he was awarded the Adams Prize for that year. For this and for his work on dynamical stability, interest in which has recently revived, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Although Routh regarded himself primarily as a teacher, but also through his original papers, he made a distinctive contribution to classical mechanics. He was a staunch defender of the Cambridge competitive system and despaired when the university started to publish examination results in alphabetical order, observing "They will want to run the Derby alphabetically next."
Membership
Routh was elected fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1854, he was an original member of the London Mathematical Society in 1865, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866, and of the Royal Society in 1872.
Royal Society of London
,
United Kingdom
1872 - 1907
London Mathematical Society
,
United Kingdom
1865 - 1907
Royal Astronomical Society
,
United Kingdom
1866 - 1907
Personality
Routh was a "kindly man and a good conversationalist with friends, but with strangers he was shy and reserved."
Connections
While Routh was working at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, he met Hilda Airy, George Airy's eldest daughter, and a friendship began which led to their marriage on 31 August 1864. They had five sons and one daughter. Edward Airy Routh served as a lieutenant in the royal artillery, George Richard Randolph Routh became an inspector of schools, Arthur Lionel Routh served as a lieutenant in the royal artillery, Harold Victor Routh became professor of Latin in Toronto, and Rupert John Routh served in the Indian civil service.