William Hopkins

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For other people named William Hopkins, see William Hopkins (disambiguation).

William Hopkins
Lord Kelvin
Peter Guthrie Tait
James Clerk Maxwell
Isaac Todhunter
Philip Kelland

William Hopkins

senior-wrangler
maker."

He also made important contributions in asserting a solid, rather than fluid, interior for the Earth and explaining many geological phenomena in terms of his model. However, though his conclusions proved to be correct, his mathematical and physical reasoning were subsequently seen as unsound.

Early life

Hopkins was born at

Kingston-on-Soar, in Nottinghamshire, the only son of William Hopkins, a gentleman farmer. In his youth he learned practical agriculture in Norfolk before his father rented him a small farm at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.[2] However, Hopkins was unsuccessful as a farmer and, when his first wife died sometime around 1821, he took the opportunity to mitigate his losses and enter St Peter's College (now Peterhouse) at the University of Cambridge, taking his degree of B.A. in 1827 as seventh wrangler and M.A. in 1830.[3]

Wrangler maker

Before graduation, Hopkins had married Caroline Frances Boys (1799–1881) and was, therefore, ineligible for a

G. G. Stokes. Among his more famous pupils were Lord Kelvin, James Clerk Maxwell and Isaac Todhunter. Francis Galton praised his teaching style:[3]

Hopkins to use a Cantab expression is a regular brick; tells funny stories connected with different problems and is no way Donnish; he rattles us on at a splendid pace and makes mathematics anything but a dry subject by entering thoroughly into its metaphysics. I never enjoyed anything so much before.

He also coached Edward Routh who went on to be Senior Wrangler and himself a prodigious "wrangler maker".[4] In 1833, Hopkins published Elements of Trigonometry and became distinguished for his mathematical knowledge.[2]

There was a famous story that the theory of George Green (1793–1841) was almost forgotten. In 1845, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson, a young man in 1845) got some copies of Green's 1828 short book from William Hopkins. Subsequently, Lord Kelvin helped to make Green's 1828 work famous.[5]

Geology

About 1833, through meeting

faults. In this way he discussed the elevation and denudation of the Lake District, the Wealden area, and the Bas Boulonnais.[2]

Hopkins conceived of a largely solid but dynamic Earth threaded with cavities whereby hot

British Association report.[3]

As part of his investigations, Hopkins sought to quantify the effects of enormous

Elie de Beaumont's theory of the elevation of mountain-chains and the imperfect evidence on which he saw it as resting.[2]

Ultimately, it was Thomson who tactfully pointed out that, though Hopkins's conclusions about the Earth's structure were correct, his mathematical and physical reasoning was unsound.[3]

Glaciology

Hopkins wrote also on the motion of glaciers and the transport of glacial erratics[2] but trespassed on the sensitivities of J. D. Forbes who saw the subject as his personal fiefdom and was contemptuous of Hopkins's lack of observational experience in the subject.[3]

Private life

Hopkins enjoyed music, poetry and landscape painting. He spent the end of his life in a

exhaustion.[3]

He had, with his second wife, one son and three daughters, among them morality campaigner Ellice Hopkins.[3]

He played first-class cricket from 1825 to 1828. He was mainly associated with Cambridge University Cricket Club and made 4 known appearances in first-class matches.[6]

Honours

Notes

  1. ^ O'Connor & Robertson 2000.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Smith 2007.
  4. ^ Fuller 2004.
  5. ^ Cannell 2001
  6. ^ CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 August 2009.

References

  • Fuller, A. T. (2004). "Routh, Edward John (1831–1907)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35850. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (2000), "William Hopkins", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  • Smith, Crosbie (May 2007). "Hopkins, William (1793–1866)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13756. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • Cannell, D.M. (2001). George Green: Mathematician and Physicist 1793-1841: The Background to His Life and Work (2nd ed.). Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
    ISBN 978-0898714630
    .

Attribution:

Further reading

External links

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