Everything about Robert Adrain totally explained
Robert Adrain (
September 30,
1775 -
August 10,
1843) was a
scientist and
mathematician, considered one of the most brilliant mathematical minds of the time in America.
He was born in
Carrickfergus,
Ireland, but left Ireland after the failure of the uprising of the
United Irishmen in
1798 and moved to
Princeton, New Jersey. He taught mathematics at various schools in the
United States.
He is chiefly remembered for his formulation of the
method of least squares, published in 1808. Adrain certainly didn't know of the work of
C.F. Gauss on least squares (published 1809), although it's possible that he'd read
A.M. Legendre's article on the topic (published 1804).
Adrain was an editor of and contributor to the
Mathematical Correspondent, the first
mathematical journal in the United States. Later he twice attempted to found his own journal,
The Analyst, or, Mathematical Museum, but in both the 1808 and 1814 attempts it didn't attract sufficient subscribers and quickly ceased publication. In 1825 he founded a somewhat more successful publication targeting a wider readership,
The Mathematical Diary, which was published through 1832.
Adrain, Gauss, and Legendre all motivated the method of least squares by the problem of reconciling disparate physical measurements; in the case of Gauss and Legendre, the measurements in question were astronomical, and in Adrain's case they were survey measurements.
Adrain died in
New Brunswick,
New Jersey.
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