Colin Maclaurin

Colin Maclaurin
Drawing by David Steuart Erskine c. 1795, from a portrait by James Ferguson
BornFebruary 1698
Died14 June 1746 (aged 48)
NationalityScottish
CitizenshipGreat Britain
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
Known forEuler–Maclaurin formula
Maclaurin's inequality
Maclaurin series
Maclaurin spheroid
Maclaurin–Cauchy test
Braikenridge–Maclaurin theorem
Trisectrix of Maclaurin
AwardsGrand Prize of the French Academy of Sciences
Scientific career
FieldsMathematician
InstitutionsMarischal College, University of Aberdeen
University of Edinburgh
Academic advisorsRobert Simson
Notable studentsRobert Adam

Colin Maclaurin (/məˈklɔːrən/; Scottish Gaelic: Cailean MacLabhruinn;[pronunciation?] February 1698 – 14 June 1746)[1] was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra.[2] He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for being the youngest professor. The Maclaurin series, a special case of the Taylor series, is named after him.

Owing to changes in orthography since that time (his name was originally rendered as M'Laurine[3]), his surname is alternatively written MacLaurin.[4]

  1. ^ http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Turnbull_Maclaurin_1.html Turnbull lectures on Colin Maclaurin (4 February 1947), Part I
  2. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Maclaurin, Colin" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  3. ^ "Colin Maclaurin: A Biographical Note" by Robin Schlapp (6 December 1946). (Note that the quotation in [1] has been altered.)
  4. ^ "The prickly genius – Colin MacLaurin (1698–1746)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 February 2008. Retrieved 20 January 2008.