Life and Scientific Work of Peter Guthrie Tait - School of Mathematics ...

STUDENT AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY 7
markedly excelled in comparison
with the best of their fellow students.
Tait was third in the honours list of the five men who formed the first
division. The Gold Medal, which was awarded to the student who made
most marks in the special examinations in the highest division, was gained
by James Sime, one of the most brilliant students of his day, and well
known in Edinburgh educational circles throughout a long and active life.
In the examinations on Newton's Principia (first three sections) and
Airy's Tracts (probably that on the undulatory theory of light), Sime
gained twice as many marks as Tait. In the ordinary examinations on
the Class Lectures Tait had a slight advantage, although a wrong addition
in the class book makes him a mark or two behind Sime. The prize
was, however, gained by Maxwell. It is not a little curious that the
Gold Medal was not won by Balfour Stewart in 1846, nor by Tait in
1848, nor by Maxwell in 1849; and yet Edinburgh University
can claim
no greater names in physical science than these three.
An interesting fact which I learned from Tait himself is worth
recording. On one occasion when, in preparation
for a lecture on statics,
I was arranging and admiring the models of catenaries of various forms
which belong to the Natural Philosophy Museum of Edinburgh University,
Tait remarked, " I helped Forbes to make these when I was a young
student here." The models were constructed of beautifully turned disks of
wood of suitable form, suitably strung together, and represented
catenary, the circular arc catenary and the catenaries of parabolic
of uniform strength.
the common
form and
I pointed to the last word "strength" which was
misspelled, the penultimate letter being dropped probably
from want of
" " "
room, and said in joke,
Is this an example of ?
your accuracy Ah,"
he rejoined, " I was responsible only for the calculations of the sizes of
the disks, not for anything else."
Clerk Maxwell spent three sessions in Edinburgh University before
he decided to go to Cambridge ;
but Tait was content with one session,
and began his mathematical training in Cambridge before he was
eighteen.