MacMahon

Percy Alexander MacMahon

Born: 26 Sept 1854 in Malta
Died: 25 Dec 1929 in Bognor-Regis, England

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MacMahon was born into a military family and was educated at Woolwich, then served in India and Malta for 5 years before returning to England and teaching in military academies.

He worked on invariants, following Cayley and Sylvester. Then he studied partitions and Latin squares, giving a Presidential Address to the London Mathematical Society on combinatorial analysis in 1894. MacMahon wrote a two volume treatise on this last mentioned topic in 1915 which is a classic.

In 1921 he wrote New Mathematical Pastimes , a book on mathematical recreations. In 1890 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about MacMahon's work on mathematical games and recreations

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. H F Baker, Percy Alexander MacMahon, J. London Math. Soc. 5 (1930), 305-318.
  3. Obituary of Percy Alexander MacMahon, Proc. Roy. Soc. London A 127 (1930), x - xviii. 
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