William Kingdon Clifford
Mathematician, Academic
1845 – 1879
Who was William Kingdon Clifford?
William Kingdon Clifford FRS was an English mathematician and philosopher. Building on the work of Hermann Grassmann, he introduced what is now termed geometric algebra, a special case of the Clifford algebra named in his honour. The operations of geometric algebra have the effect of mirroring, rotating, translating, and mapping the geometric objects that are being modelled to new positions. Clifford algebras in general and geometric algebra in particular, have been of ever increasing importance to mathematical physics, geometry, and computing. Clifford was the first to suggest that gravitation might be a manifestation of an underlying geometry. In his philosophical writings he coined the expression "mind-stuff".
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- Born
- May 4, 1845
Exeter - Also known as
- William Clifford
- Spouses
- Lucy Clifford
(1875/04/07 - 1879/03/03)
- Lucy Clifford
- Children
- Religion
- Atheism
- Anglicanism
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Profession
- Education
- King's College London
- Trinity College, Cambridge
- Lived in
- England
- Died
- Mar 3, 1879
Madeira - Resting place
- Highgate Cemetery
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"William Kingdon Clifford." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/william_kingdon_clifford>.
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