Birth: November 27, 1849, Stockport, England. Death: December 4, 1934, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, now amalgamated with isle of Ely. Mathematician who contributed to the field of mathematical physics. In 1872 he was made a fellow and assistant tutor of Trinity college, Cambridge, and three years later he became professor of mathematics at Adelaide University, Australia. He returned to England in 1885 to become professor of mathematics at Victoria University, Lancashire. The recognized authority on hydrodynamics, he wrote the Mathematical Theory of the Motion of Fluids (1878) and Hydrodynamics (1895); the latter for many years was the standard work on hydrodynamics. His many papers, principally on applied mathematics, detailed his researches on wave propagation, electrical induction, earthquake tremors, and the theory of tides and waves.
Lamb made valuable studies of airflow over aircraft surfaces for the Aeronautical Research Committee from 1921 to 1927. He was made a fellow of the Royal society of London in 1884 and was knighted in 1931. His other publications include Infinitesimal Calculus (1897); Dynamical Theory of Sound (1910); Statics: Including Hydrostatics and Elements of the Theory of Elasticity (1912); Dynamics (1914); and Higher Mechanics (1920).
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