Everything about Colin Maclaurin totally explained
Colin Maclaurin (February,
1698 -
June 14,
1746) was a
Scottish mathematician.
He was born in
Kilmodan,
Argyll. His father, the Reverend John Maclaurin, was the minister of
Glendaruel and author of an Irish version of the
Psalms. Colin lost his father in infancy, and his mother before he was nine years old, and was educated under the care of his uncle, the Reverend Daniel Maclaurin, minister of
Kilfinnan. He entered the
University of Glasgow at age eleven, not unusual at the time; but graduating MA by successfully defending a thesis on
the Power of Gravity at age 14. After graduation he remained at Glasgow to study
divinity for a period, and in 1717, aged nineteen, after a competition which lasted for ten days, he was elected professor of
mathematics at Marischal College in the
University of Aberdeen. He held the record as the world's youngest professor until March 2008.
In the vacations of 1719 and 1721 he went to
London, where he became acquainted with Sir
Isaac Newton, Dr. Hoadley, Dr.
Samuel Clarke, and
Martin Folkes, and other eminent philosophers, and was admitted a member of the
Royal Society.
In 1722, having provided a competent person to attend to his class for a time at Aberdeen, he travelled on the Continent as tutor to George Hume, the son of
Alexander Hume, 2nd Earl of Marchmont; and during their time in
Lorraine, he wrote his essay on the
Percussion of Bodies, which gained the prize of the
Royal Academy of Sciences in 1724. Upon the death of his pupil at
Montpellier he returned to Aberdeen.
In 1725 he was appointed deputy to the mathematical professor at
Edinburgh, James Gregory (brother of
David Gregory and nephew of the more famous
James Gregory), upon the recommendation of
Isaac Newton. Newton was so impressed with his work, he actually offered to pay Maclaurin's salary. On November 3 of that year Maclaurin succeeded Gregory. Maclaurin is credited with raising the character of that university as a school of science.
The first terms of the "
Maclaurin series" for some
trigonometric functions had been given by
Madhava of Sangamagrama in fourteenth century India. The series was also developed and published by James Gregory, but Maclaurin wasn't aware of this and published it in
Methodus incrementorum directa et inversa.
Independently from
Euler, he discovered the "
Euler-Maclaurin formula".
In 1733, he married Anne Stewart, the daughter of
Walter Stewart, the
Solicitor General for Scotland, by whom he'd seven children.
He actively opposed the
Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 and superintended the operations necessary for the defence of Edinburgh against the Highland army, but upon their entry into the city, he'd to flee to
York, where he was invited by the
Archbishop of York to reside with him.
On his journey south, he fell from his horse, and the fatigue, anxiety, and cold to which he was exposed on that occasion laid the foundations of
dropsy. He returned to Edinburgh after the
Jacobite army marched south, but died soon after his return.
He is buried at
Greyfriars Kirkyard,
Edinburgh.
Some of his important works are:
Mathematician and
MIT President
Richard Cockburn Maclaurin is from the same family.
Further Information
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