Cayley

Arthur Cayley

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ARTHUR CAYLEY was the second son of an English merchant. Like Gauss, Cayley showed signs of mathematical genius at an early age. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he soon advanced beyond his fellows. He won a series of honors culminating in his election as a Fellow of Trinity and an assistant tutor, a position to which he could have been re-elected had he been willing to take holy vows as a minister in the Church of England. After graduation from Cambridge, Cayley began a prolific writing career, publishing 25 papers in 3 years. The work he began in these papers directed his mathematical interest for nearly 50 years.


Cayley was unable to find a position as a mathematician, so at 25 he decided to enter law. For 14 years Cayley had a modestly successful legal career, but he continued to spend considerable time on mathematics, publishing more than 200 papers.

In 1863, Cayley was appointed professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held until his death in 1895. While teaching at Cambridge, Cayley was instrumental in persuading the administration to begin accepting women as students.


Cayley’s writings and mathematical creations involved many branches of mathematics, including analytic geometry. He is most remembered, however, for his work in linear algebra. He introduced matrix theory in a paper titled A Memoir on the Theory of Matrices (1858) and originated the theory of invariants.

Cayley

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