John Radford Young


John Radford Young was an English mathematician, professor and author, who was almost entirely self-educated. He was born of humble parents in London. At an early age he became acquainted with Olinthus Gilbert Gregory, who perceived his mathematical ability and assisted him in his studies. In 1823, while working in a private establishment for the deaf, he published An Elementary Treatise on Algebra with a dedication to Gregory. This treatise was followed by a series of elementary works, in which, following in the steps of Robert Woodhouse, Young familiarized English students with continental methods of mathematical analysis.
In 1833, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Belfast College. When Queen's College, Belfast, opened in 1849, the presbyterian party in control there prevented Young's reappointment as Professor in the new establishment. From that time he devoted himself more completely to the study of mathematical analysis, and made several original discoveries.
In 1847, he published in the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society a paper "On the Principle of Continuity in reference to certain Results of Analysis", and, in 1848, in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy a paper "On an Extension of a Theorem of Euler". As early as 1844, he had discovered and published a proof of Newton's rule for determining the number of imaginary roots in an equation. In 1866, he completed his proof, publishing in The Philosophical Magazine a demonstration of a principle which in his earlier paper he had assumed as axiomatic. In 1868, he contributed to the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy a memoir "On the Imaginary Roots of Numerical Equations".
Young died at Peckham on 5 March 1885. He was married and had at least two sons and four daughters.

Works