George Green (mathematician)

George Green (14 July 1793 – 31 May 1841) was a British mathematical physicist born in Sneinton, Nottinghamshire, now part of the city of Nottingham. Despite receiving little recognition during his lifetime, he is best remembered for his Essay on electricity and magnetism published in 1828. In this essay he introduced an early version of Green's theorem in vector calculus, the notion of potential functions as currently used in physics, and a method of solving differential equations called Green's functions. This paper formed the foundation for the work of later scientists such as William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), among many others. His work on potentials ran parallel to that of Carl Friedrich Gauss. As a mathematician, he was almost entirely self-taught, receiving only about one year of formal schooling as a child, between the ages of eight and nine. Green then worked his father's bakery from a young age, and later at the mill his father constructed in 1807, now known as Green's Windmill. Whilst working as a miller, he became a member of Nottingham Subscription Library through which he was able to access contemporary mathematical knowledge. Green formed a relationship with Jane Smith, the daughter of the mill manager William Smith. Although the couple never married, they had seven children together and she later adopted Green's surname. After the death of his father in 1829, he was left a substantial inheritance, allowing him to give up milling to pursue mathematics. In 1833, Green began a formal education at the University of Cambridge and was elected a fellow at Caius College after his graduation. Throughout his time at the university, he wrote six papers on hydrodynamics, acoustics, and optics. In 1840, he fell ill and returned to Nottingham where he died of influenza the following year, on 31 May 1841. After his death, his Essay was rediscovered by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) who promoted Green's work and used it in his own research on electricity and magnetism. Today, Green's functions remain a standard tool for solving differential equations in modern physics, including in quantum electrodynamics (QED) and condensed-matter physics.

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