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William Hamilton

In science, William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was an Irish mathematical physicist whose 1834 two-part publication “On a General Method in Dynamics”, one of the founding papers in the science of dynamics, served as a mathematical basis of logic for German physicist Rudolf Clausius’ mathematical foundations, particularly on the calculation of work done or consumed in a system of particles acted on by forces, to his 1865 textbook Mechanical Theory of Heat. [1] In particular, according to Clausius, was Hamilton’s derivation of what he called the “force-function”, defined as: [2]

W = F(xyz) + const

in which the work W done by forces acting on a system of particles can be expressed as a function F(xyz) of rectangular coordinates. Hamilton was looped into the early thermodynamics network via his correspondence with Scottish mathematical physicist Peter Tait. [3]

Further reading
● Szily, C. (1873). “On Hamilton’s Dynamic Principle in Thermodynamics”, (pg. 426-34). Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. Vol. XLV., fourth series, Jan-Jun. London: Taylor and Francis.

References
1. (a) Hamilton, W.R. (1834). “On a general method in dynamics by which the study of the motions of all free systems of attracting or repelling points is reduced to the search and differentiation of one central relation, or characteristic function.” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, 124:247-308.
(b) Hamilton, W.R. (1835). “A second essay on a general method in dynamics.” Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, 125:95-144.
2. (a) Clausius, R. (1865). The Mechanical Theory of Heat – with its Applications to the Steam Engine and to Physical Properties of Bodies. (Google Books). London: John van Voorst, 1 Paternoster Row. MDCCCLXVII.
(b) Clausius, Rudolf. (1879). The Mechanical Theory of Heat, (2nd ed). London: Macmillan & Co.
3. Wilkins, David R. (2005). Perplexingly Easy: Selected Correspondence Between William Rowan Hamilton and Peter Guthrie Tait (FitzGerald Series).

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