Peter Guthrie Tait - Early years, Middle years, Later years, Private life

Mathematician, born in Dalkeith, Midlothian, EC Scotland, UK. He studied at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and became professor of mathematics at Belfast (1854) and professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh (1860–1901). He was a major influence in the development of mathematical physics. He wrote on quaternions, thermodynamics, and the kinetic theory of gases, and collaborated with Lord Kelvin on a Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867). A golf enthusiast, he studied the dynamics of the flight of a golf-ball and discovered the importance of ‘underspin’.

Peter Guthrie Tait (April 28, 1831 - July 4, 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, best known for the seminal energy physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Kelvin.

Early years

He was born at Dalkeith. As a fellow and lecturer of his college he remained in Cambridge for two years longer, and then left to take up the professorship of mathematics at Queen's College, Belfast.

Middle years

In 1860, Tait was chosen to succeed his old master, JD Forbes, as professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, and this chair he occupied till within a few months of his death. The first scientific paper that appears under Tait's name only was published in 1860. He was the author of two text-books on them--one an Elementary Treatise on Quaternions (1867), written with the advice of Hamilton, though not published till after his death, and the other an Introduction to Quaternions (1873), in which he was aided by Philip Kelland (1808-1879), who had been one of his teachers at Edinburgh.

But he also produced original work in mathematical and experimental physics. In 1873 he took thermoelectricity for the subject of his discourse as Rede lecturer at Cambridge, and in the same year he presented the first sketch of his well-known thermoelectric diagram before the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Two years later researches on "Charcoal Vacua" with James Dewar led him to see the true dynamical explanation of the Crookes radiometer in the large mean free path of the molecule of the highly rarefied air.

Many other inquiries conducted by him might be mentioned, and some idea may be gained of his scientific activity from the fact that a selection only from his papers, published by the Cambridge University Press, fills three large volumes.

Later years

In addition, he was the author of a number of books and articles. and afterwards there followed a number of concise treatises on thermodynamics, heat, light, properties of matter and dynamics, together with an admirably lucid volume of popular lectures on Recent Advances in Physical Science.

With Lord Kelvin, he collaborated in writing the well-known Treatise on Natural Philosophy. "Thomson and Tait," as it is familiarly called ("T and T" was the authors' own formula), was planned soon after Lord Kelvin became acquainted with Tait, on the latter's appointment to his professorship in Edinburgh, and it was intended to be an all-comprehensive treatise on physical science, the foundations being laid in kinematics and dynamics, and the structure completed with the properties of matter, heat, light, electricity and magnetism. The friendship, however, endured for the twenty-three years which yet remained of Tait's life.

Tait collaborated with Balfour Stewart in the Unseen Universe, which was followed by Paradoxical Philosophy.

Private life

Tait was an enthusiastic golfer and, of his seven children, two, Frederick Guthrie Tait (1870-1900) and John Guthrie Tait (1861-1945) went on to become gifted amateur champions. Tait himself had, in 1891, invoked the Magnus effect to explain the influence of spin on the flight of a golf ball.