Hollywood special effects,3d car crashes and even sex-siren Lara Croft were created as a direct result of a discovery made by an irish scientist while walking along Dublins Royal Canal.
Scientists and astrologers across the world are this week celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Meath mathematician William Rowan Hamilton who discovered how light moves through the atmosphere.
And according to top academics on a new documentary about the famed scientist, his discoveries are the backbone of movies including The Matrix and computer games like HaloII.
Dr. Steven Collins of the Dublin based Havok firm says a discovery made by Hamilton in 1843 means that computer babes like Lara Ccroft can exist.
"Havok make software for games and movies based purely on Hamiltons maths. Due to his discoveries we have been able to make software to create special effects like explosions and car crashes.
“Loads of companies use Havok.”
Icons of Irish Science:William Rowan Hmanilton will go out on RTE Radio 1 on August 6 at 7.02pm.
Hmm, sounds a little far fetched even though it might be directly connected, did that make any sense? Probably not.
Kind of cool, all though I expected this thread to be about Tomb Raider and am a wee bit dissapointed it’s not.
By the by, it sounds like This guy’s math directly effected the programing of light behavior in digital constructs. I really doubt anything to do with math inspired Tomb Raider… Probably Indian Jones, bikini babes, and the desire to make money had a lot to do with the “inspiration”.
