George Darwin
Sir George Howard Darwin, F.R.S. ( Born July 9, 1845 in Down, Kent, † December 7, 1912 in Cambridge, England ) was a British astronomer and mathematician. He was the fifth child ( second son ) by Charles Darwin. He is known for his theory that the moon to have once been part of the earth ( spin-off theory).
Biography
George Darwin studied from 1864 to 1868 at Trinity College, Cambridge, completed the exam as the second best student in his class and in the same year a Fellow of Trinity College. 1870 and 1871 he was involved in the scientific expedition to observe the solar eclipse in Sicily and then studied law in London sciences. In 1873 he went to Cambridge and back but was taken up in 1879 as a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1883 he was Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge University and in 1885 member of the board of the Meteorological Office. In 1892 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and later became president of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1905 he was awarded the second-class Bathorden ( KCB ) and the Copley Medal in 1911.
Since 1882 Darwin investigated the effect of the tides on the solar system with mathematical methods and became a recognized expert in this field. He published in 1883 a paper on the tides in the Journal of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which also made it possible for the layman, the tides predict. He also wrote corresponding article in the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Admiralty Scientific Manual. His calculations following, he postulated the elimination theory on the origin of the moon, which he gained great notoriety, even if it is now seen as wrong. According to the theory, the earth rotated so strong that replaced part by instabilities and the Moon made in its early stages. 1882 added the geologist Osmond Fisher added the finding that the Pacific Ocean is the still visible scar with this spin.
Based on the works of George William Hill, he calculated numerically solutions to the three-body problem. His work was published in 1897 under the title Periodic orbits and initiated further research on this topic.
Other works include the 1875 published publication on the marriages between blood relatives and studies of the influence of geological changes on the Earth's axis (1876 ), about the early history of the Earth ( 1878), about the pressure of the loose sand, through small changes in the level of the earth's surface and weak earthquakes ( with his brother Horace Darwin). In 1909 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina.
Marriage and descendants
George Howard Darwin was with Martha ( Maud ) du Puy of Philadelphia, USA, married. The marriage produced four children:
- Gwendoline ( Gwen ) Mary ( 1885-1957 ), artist and writer
- Charles Galton (1887-1962), Physicist
- Margaret Elizabeth (1890-1974) ∞ Sir Geoffrey Keynes (1887-1982)
- William Robert ( 1894 -? )
Works
- On beneficial restrictions to liberty of marriage. In: Contemporary Review. Volume 22, 1873, pp. 412-426
- Marriages in between First Cousins in England and Their Effects. In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Volume 38, 1875, pp. 153-182
- The tides and kindred phenomena in the solar system ( Boston, Houghton, 1899)
- Problem connected with the tides of a viscous spheroid (London, Harrison and Sons, 1879-1882 )
- Scientific papers (Volume 1): Oceanic tides and lunar disturbances of gravity ( Cambridge: University Press, 1907)
- Scientific papers (Volume 2): Tidal friction and cosmogony. ( Cambridge: University Press, 1908)
- Scientific papers (Volume 3): Figures of equilibrium of rotating liquid and geophysical investigations. ( Cambridge: University Press, 1908)
- Scientific papers (Volume 4): Periodic orbits and miscellaneous papers. ( Cambridge: University Press, 1911)
- Scientific papers (Volume 5) Supplementary volume, Containing biographical memoirs by Sir Francis Darwin and Professor EW Brown, lectures on Hill's lunar theory, etc. .. ( Cambridge: University Press, 1916)