E. W. Hobson

Ernest William Hobson ( born October 27, 1856 in Derby, † April 19, 1933 ) was a British mathematician.

Hobson attended the Derby College ( where he distinguished himself already in a statewide math competition) and the Royal College of Mines ( he studied briefly with a physics scholarship ) before he went to Cambridge University in 1874 ( Christ's College ). In 1878 he was in the Tripos examinations Senior Wrangler and was afterwards Fellow of his college. From 1910 to 1931 he was professor of mathematics at Cambridge Sadleirian.

Hobson worked in the field of real analysis, including the theory of spherical functions. He also wrote about applications of analysis such as the article on heat conduction in the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences. From 1912 he was president of the Mathematical Association. He was a member of the Leopoldina since 1911.

Writings

• Theory of Functions of a Real Variable and the Theory of Fourier 's Series (1907 )
• Squaring the Circle - a history of the problem- (1913 )
• The Domain of Natural Science (1923 ) ( Gifford Lectures 1921/2, University of Aberdeen)
• The Theory of Spherical and Ellipsoidal Harmonics (1931 )
• John Napier and the invention of logarithm, Cambridge (1914 )