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Concept
Colin Maclaurin
Summary
Colin Maclaurin (məˈklɔːrən; Cailean MacLabhruinn; February 1698 – 14 June 1746) was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for being the youngest professor. The Maclaurin series, a special case of the Taylor series, is named after him.
Owing to changes in orthography since that time (his name was originally rendered as M'Laurine), his surname is alternatively written MacLaurin.
Maclaurin was born in Kilmodan, Argyll. His father, John Maclaurin, minister of Glendaruel, died when Maclaurin was in infancy, and his mother died before he reached nine years of age. He was then educated under the care of his uncle, Daniel Maclaurin, minister of Kilfinan. A child prodigy, he entered university at age 11.
At eleven, Maclaurin, a child prodigy at the time, entered the University of Glasgow. He graduated Master of Arts three years later by defending a thesis on the Power of Gravity, and remained at Glasgow to study divinity until he was 19, when he was elected professor of mathematics in a ten-day competition at Marischal College and University in Aberdeen. This record as the world's youngest professor endured until March 2008, when the record was officially given to Alia Sabur.
In the vacations of 1719 and 1721, Maclaurin went to London, where he became acquainted with Isaac Newton, Benjamin Hoadly, Samuel Clarke, Martin Folkes, and other philosophers. He was admitted a member of the Royal Society.
In 1722, having provided a locum for his class at Aberdeen, he travelled on the Continent as tutor to George Hume, the son of Alexander Hume, 2nd Earl of Marchmont. During their time in Lorraine, he wrote his essay on the percussion of bodies (Demonstration des loix du choc des corps), which gained the prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1724. Upon the death of his pupil at Montpellier, Maclaurin returned to Aberdeen.
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