Father of Matrix

Arthur Cayley

Arthur Cayley was born on 16th August 1821 who was a great mathematician and firmly known as the father of mathematics. He was the one who founded the modern British school of mathematics in schools.

Even from his school age, he enjoyed solving complex mathematics problems for his amusement. He got excelled in Greek, French, German, Italian, and mathematics. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge.

 In those ancient days, he invented the Cayley-Hamilton theorem. It states that every square matrix is a root of its own characteristic polynomial. He verified this for 2 and 3 ordered matrices. He defined the concept of a group in a modern way which as a set that satisfies certain laws. He was the first person to do this.

At first, when mathematicians spoke about "groups" they meant about permutation groups. In the honor of Cayley, mathematicians named Cayley tables, Cayley graphs, and Cayley's theorems. Let's get into his personal life.

Cayley's father is Henry Cayley. He was a distant cousin to Sir George Cayley. George was an aeronautical engineer inventor.

Cayley as a lawyer:

Because of Cayley's limited tenure of fellowship, he needs to choose a profession by pressure and he chooses to be a lawyer. He entered into Lincoln's Inn, London at the age of 25 years. He wanted to hear Hamilton's lectures on quaternion. So he went to Dublin when he was a pupil at the bar examination. His friend J.J.Sylvester who is a senior to him by five years at Cambridge, they used to walk together around the courts of Lincoln Inn. At that time they used to discuss the theory of invariants and co variants.

Cayley as a Professor:

At the Cambridge University, the ancient professorship of mathematics chair of mathematics id filled by Isaac Newton. The duties of a professor are to explain and teach the principles of pure mathematics to apply it to modern science. Cayley was elected to that position at the age of 45 years. Cayley died on 26th January 1895 at the age of 73.