mathematics

James H. Wilkinson

James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson rather than just read about it. In short: James Hardy Wilkinson FRS (27 September 1919 – 5 October 1986) was a prominent figure in the field of numerical analysis, a field at the boundary of applied mathematics and computer science particularly useful to physics and engineering. In 1970 he won the ACM Turing Award.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

James Hardy Wilkinson FRS (27 September 1919 – 5 October 1986) was a prominent figure in the field of numerical analysis, a field at the boundary of applied mathematics and computer science particularly useful to physics and engineering. In 1970 he won the ACM Turing Award.

Education Born in Strood, England, he won a Foundation Scholarship to Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester. He studied the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as Senior Wrangler.

Career Taking up war work in 1940, he began working on ballistics but transferred to the National Physical Laboratory in 1946, where he worked with Alan Turing on the ACE computer project. Later, Wilkinson's interests took him into the numerical analysis field, where he discovered many significant algorithms.

Awards and honours Wilkinson received the Turing Award in 1970 "for his research in numerical analysis to facilitate the use of the high-speed digital computer, having received special recognition for his work in computations in linear algebra and 'backward' error analysis." In the same year, he also gave the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) John von Neumann Lecture. Wilkinson also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1973. He was elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 1974 for his pioneering work in computer science. The James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, established in 1982 by SIAM, and J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software, established in 1991, are named in his honour. In 1987, Wilkinson won the Chauvenet Prize of the Mathematical Association of America, for his paper "The Perfidious Polynomial".

Personal life Wilkinson married Heather Ware in 1945. He died at home of a heart attack on 5 October 1986. His wife and their son survived him, a daughter having predeceased him.

Selected works Wilkinson, James Hardy (1963). Rounding Errors in Algebraic Processes (1 ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc. MR 0161456. ISBN 9780486679990. (REAP) Reprinted from SIAM in 2023, ISBN 978-1-61197-751-6. Wilkinson, James Hardy (1965). The Algebraic Eigenvalue Problem. Monographs on Numerical Analysis (1 ed.). Oxford University Press / Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198534183. Retrieved 11 February 2016. (AEP) with Christian Reinsch: Handbook for Automatic Computation, Volume II, Linear Algebra, Springer-Verlag, 1971 The Perfidious Polynomial. In: Studies in Numerical Analysis, pp. 1–28, MAA Stud. Math., 24, Math. Assoc. America, Washington, DC, 1984

See also List of pioneers in computer science

References

External links

"Photo of Wilkinson". Nick Higham's photo archive. "Nick Higham's archive". Mathematics. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester. "An interview with James H. Wilkinson", Conducted by J. C. Nash on 13 July, 1984 "Celebrating the centenary of the birth of James H. Wilkinson". Advances in Numerical Linear Algebra. 29–30 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2019.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with James H. Wilkinson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson

In research: James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson 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: James H. Wilkinson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1919 births, 1986 deaths, 20th-century English mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for James H. Wilkinson 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.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study James H. Wilkinson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is James H. Wilkinson in simple terms?

Why does James H. Wilkinson 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 James H. Wilkinson?

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 James H. Wilkinson.