Culture & life
The mathematician William Rowan Hamilton scratched a famous formula into Broom Bridge in Dublin in 1843. What had he discovered?
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A Logarithms
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B The laws of probability
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C Differential calculus
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✓ Quaternions Your answer
Correct!
Hamilton had a flash of insight while walking along the Royal Canal and carved the rule for quaternions into the bridge. Quaternions are still used today, for example in computer graphics and spacecraft navigation.
Source: Maynooth University / Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies: Hamilton and Broom Bridge