mathematics

Hamnet Holditch

Hamnet Holditch is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hamnet Holditch rather than just read about it. In short: Rev. Hamnet Holditch, also spelled Hamnett Holditch (1800 – 12 December 1867), was an English mathematician who was President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Key takeaways

Hamnet Holditch belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hamnet Holditch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hamnet Holditch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rev. Hamnet Holditch, also spelled Hamnett Holditch (1800 – 12 December 1867), was an English mathematician who was President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1858, he introduced the result in geometry now known as Holditch's theorem. Hamnet Holditch was born in 1800 in King's Lynn, the son of George Holditch, pilot and harbour-master. Educated at King's Lynn Grammar School under Rev. Martin Coulcher, he matriculated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1818, and graduated B.A. in 1822 (Senior Wrangler and 1st Smith's Prize), M.A. in 1825. At Gonville and Caius College, Holditch was a junior fellow from 1821 and a senior fellow from 1823, and held the college posts of lecturer in Hebrew and Greek, registrar, steward, salarist (1823–28), bursar (1828–31), and President (1835–67). He died at Gonville and Caius College on 12 December 1867, aged 67, and was buried at North Wootton. Although Holditch produced ten mathematical papers, he was extremely idle as a tutor. John Venn, an undergraduate at Caius in the 1850s then a Caius Fellow from 1857, noted that Holditch, despite his succession of college offices, "beyond a few private pupils, never took part in educational work":

He was a very ingenious mathematician, and would probably have distinguished himself had he been compelled to work. Remarkable for his extreme shyness. On account of some ancient slight he for many years entirely absented himself from Hall and Chapel, and few members of the college knew him even by sight:— an undergraduate once showed him round the college, taking him for a stranger. The whole summer he spent fishing in Scotland or Wales. It is curious to see Holditch coming out of his den, which he does once in ten years, with something about rolling curves or caustics. He was senior wrangler the year before Airy, and what has made a man of such decided talent shut himself up I never heard.

Bibliography Rev. Hamnett Holditch, "Concise Demonstration of the Property of the Parabola", The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, vol. 10, 1837, pp. 35–36. (Google Books) Hamnett Holditch, "On Rolling Curves", Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. 7, (1842), pp. 61–86. (Google Books) Rev. H. Holditch, "On Small Finite Oscillations", Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Volume the Eighth, Cambridge, 1849, pp. 89–104. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "On the Caustic by Reflection from a Spherical Surface", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 1, London, 1857, pp. 93–111. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "Geometrical Theorem", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 2, London, 1858, p. 38. (Google Books; Internet Archive) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "On the nth Caustic, by Reflexion from a Circle", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 2, London, 1858, pp. 301–322. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "On the nth Evolutes and Involutes of Curves", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 3, London, 1860, pp. 236–246. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "Theorems on Related Curves", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 3, London, 1860, pp. 271–274. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "On Double Tangents", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 4, London, 1861, pp. 28–44. (Google Books) Rev. Hamnet Holditch, "On a Magic Square", The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 6, London, 1864, pp. 181–189. (Google Books)

References

The Last Will and Testament of Hamnet Holditch Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hamnet Holditch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hamnet Holditch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hamnet Holditch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hamnet Holditch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hamnet Holditch

In research: Hamnet Holditch appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hamnet Holditch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hamnet Holditch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1800 births, 1867 deaths, 19th-century English mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hamnet Holditch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hamnet Holditch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hamnet Holditch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hamnet Holditch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hamnet Holditch in simple terms?

Rev. Hamnet Holditch, also spelled Hamnett Holditch (1800 – 12 December 1867), was an English mathematician who was President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Why does Hamnet Holditch matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hamnet Holditch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hamnet Holditch.