Octonions
Octoniones
- Date
- diciembre de 1843 · confidence high
- Place
- Dublin, Ireland
- Credited to
- John T. Graves
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Spurred by his friend Hamilton's discovery of quaternions, Graves built in December 1843 an eight-dimensional extension he called "octaves"; Arthur Cayley independently reached the same result and published it first, so octonions are also known as Cayley numbers.
Graves conceived octonions first, in a letter to Hamilton dated 26 December 1843, but Cayley published first, in 1845, so the alternative name "Cayley numbers" honors the second person to reach the idea.
What it led to
- Composition algebras and the classification of normed division algebras (Hurwitz)
- Applications in string theory and theoretical physics