Sir William Rowan Hamilton

He was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1805.

True to the Irish nature, Hamilton became passionate about math's
when he lost a competition to an American boy when he was a child.
While Hamilton was very intellectual and enjoyed many subjects, he
decided to pursue his love of math's and study at Trinity College,
where he became a professor later on in his life.
His Idea
Hamilton's discovery of the quaternions were one of the rare
occurrences where a discovery is captured in real time.
Having problems with this theory for years, Hamilton solved the
problem when walking along the Canal.
To commemorate his discovery, he etched the equation into the
bridge along the Royal Canal.
The Theory
Hamilton was entranced by the link between geometry and complex
numbers.
Complex numbers are numbers made up of real numbers, these are numbers we use daily for
measuring or counting and imaginary numbers which are represented with an i.

Complex numbers could be neatly manipulated by two-dimensional

geometry. Hamilton wanted to extend this to three-dimensional
geometry.
His Life
Hamilton did not marry for many years as he was a very finicky man.
In the end, he married a woman called Helen Maria Bayly but the
relationship was doomed from the start. Hamilton loved a woman
who he had confided in for many years but could not marry her as
she was married to Barlow.
Hamilton led a very depressed and alcoholic life after the birth of his
three children and it was only when he discovered the fourth-
dimension did he start to get better.
However, after this discovery and after the death and suicide of his
uncles and colleague , Hamilton soon depleted into a miserable man.
His Death
When Catherine died, Hamilton dealed with his grief by plaguing
Catherine's family with letter, some twice a day.
Hamilton became determined to produce a book of quality and
estimated that the Elements of Quaternions would be 400 pages and
take up to two years to write.
However, the book ended up being 800 pages long and it took
Hamilton seven years to write.
When Hamilton died in 1865, the final chapter was incomplete and
was it was only published with a preface from his son, William Edwin
Hamilton.