Mathematicians
Francis Guthrie
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British mathematician and botanist who, while coloring a map of the counties of England around 1852 as a student at University College London, noticed that four colors always seemed to suffice so that no two adjoining counties shared a color, and conjectured this held for every map. His younger brother Frederick, then a student of Augustus De Morgan, brought the conjecture and an unsatisfactory attempted proof to De Morgan's attention, beginning the four color problem's long history. After training as a barrister, Guthrie emigrated to South Africa in 1861 and worked there as a mathematician and botanist.
Facts
Death PlaceClaremont, Cape Town, South Africa 1 Nationality / CultureBritish, later South African 1 Defining ContributionPosed the four color conjecture around 1852 while coloring a map of the counties of England, the origin of what became the four color theorem. 1 Notable WorkFirst posed the Four Colour Conjecture in 1852 while coloring a map of the counties of England. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
University of St Andrews, School of Mathematics and Statisticshttps://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/The_four_colour_theorem/Quote, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/The_four_colour_theorem/
Francis Guthrie showed his brother some results he had been trying to prove about the colouring of maps and asked Frederick to ask De Morgan about them.
2. Francis Guthrie (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationopening sentenceQuote, opening sentence
Francis Guthrie (born 22 January 1831 in London; d. 19 October 1899 in Claremont, Cape Town) was a Cape Colony mathematician and botanist who first posed the Four Colour Problem in 1852.
2. Francis Guthrie (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationopening/Life sectionQuote, opening/Life section
While colouring a map of the counties of England, he noticed that at least four colours were required so that no two regions sharing a common border were the same colour.
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