Airy

George Biddell Airy

Born: 27 July 1801 in Alnwick, Northumberland, England
Died: 2 Jan 1892 in Greenwich, England

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Airy was an astronomer who was Astronomer Royal from 1835. He wrote the text On the Algebraic and Numerical Theory of Errors of Observations and the Combinations of Observations. Although said at the time to be

unreadable except by those already thoroughly acquainted with the subject,

the book was used at Cambridge and influenced Pearson.

Airy's delay, in 1845, of searching for Neptune at the location suggested by Adams prevented Adams obtaining full credit for his work. Airy improved the orbital theory of Venus and the Moon, studied interference fringes in optics, made a mathematical study of the rainbow and computed the density of the Earth by swinging a pendulum at the top and bottom of a deep mine.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Airy's work on orbits and gravitation

Airy worked on the Nephroid

Other Web sites:

MIT, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. W A Airy, Autobiography of Sir George Airy (London, 1896).
  4. A Chapman, Britain's first professional astronomer : George Biddell Airy (1801-1892), Yearbook of astronomy (1991), 185-205.
  5. A Chapman, The pit and the pendulum : George Biddell Airy and his measurements of gravity, Astronomy Now 5 (1991), 18-20. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996