Robert Adrain | |
|---|---|
 portrait by Charles C. Ingham | |
| Born | 30 September 1775 Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Ireland |
| Died | 10 August 1843 (aged 67) New Brunswick, New Jersey, US |
| Known for | Least squares method |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Diophantine algebra Statistics |
| Institutions | Queen's College/Rutgers Columbia College University of Pennsylvania |
Robert Adrain (30 September 1775 – 10 August 1843) was an Irish political exile who won renown as a mathematician in the United States. He left Ireland after leading republican insurgents in the Rebellion of 1798, and settled in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. With Nathaniel Bowditch, he shares the distinction of being the first scholar to publish original mathematical research in America. This included his formulation of the method of least squares while working on a surveying problem (in two proofs of the exponential law of error published independently of Carl Friedrich Gauss) for which he is chiefly remembered.[1][2][3] His fields of applied mathematical interest included physics, astronomy and geodesy. Many of his mathematical investigations focussed on the shape of the Earth.[4]
- ^ Dutka, Jacques (1990). "Robert Adrain and the method of least squares". Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 41 (2). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 171–184. doi:10.1007/bf00411864. ISSN 0003-9519. S2CID 123167968.
- ^ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Marquis Who's Who. 1967.
- ^ Hogan, Edward R (1 May 1977). "Robert Adrian: American mathematician". Historia Mathematica. 4 (2): 157–172. doi:10.1016/0315-0860(77)90109-4. ISSN 0315-0860.
- ^ Swetz, Frank J. (2008). "The Mystery of Robert Adrain". Mathematics Magazine. 81 (5): (332–344) 333–336. doi:10.1080/0025570X.2008.11953574. ISSN 0025-570X. JSTOR 27643138. S2CID 126151584.