Talk:E. T. Whittaker

Doesn't belong in Project Christianity

I have removed the instantiation of Project Christianity. The article makes some mention that Whittaker was a Christian and married the daughter of a notable Presbyterian. Wittaker's notability is solely in mathematics and perhaps in the the physical sciences or applied mathematics. There is no indication that he published or wrote anything for public consumption regarding Christianity or any religion or religious philosophy or acted in the religious sphere in any historical manner at all. If I am mistaken about this then such should be placed into the article and it can be scrutinized and verified. 71.169.181.188 (talk) 02:22, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Location

I have corrected the birthplace, as Southport, Merseyside, as this is the correct Post Office format. I've also removed "England" from the address, as this is mentioned earlier in the paragraph --me_and 5 July 2005 22:10 (UTC)

External links modified

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Expansion

Hi all, as the title of the section may suggest, I strongly believe this article should be expanded dramatically. I have created a full article on Whittaker's History, which includes over sixty unique citations. All the reviews praise Whittaker and the obituaries and later reviews discuss his life and works as well. This article needs to be filled out, it could be a featured article, though it would require considerable work. Whittaker has been called by many wikinotable scientists the most versatile, preeminent and most well-known British mathematician of his time, and this was surely a critical time to be a preeminent mathematician. He has also been called a leading historian of science and one of the great mathematical physicists. There is a trove of information online in scholarly articles that was probably not available in the early days of this article. If I was able, to find dozens of references discussing one of three major books he published, I am quite confident that both this article and Whittaker and Watson can be filled out nicely. Contrary to what may be popular belief, his role as a belligerent in the special relativity priority dispute did not diminish his status as a leading scholar. (I could, but am not going to take the time to cite all these claims on a talk page, please see the previously mentioned new article and all its reviews that are well cited, in particular note the Born reviews and Freeman Dyson's review and the address from the president of the Royal Society from October 1954). I may get around to adding content at some point, but would like to invite other contributors to do so first. Thanks!Footlessmouse (talk) 23:47, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I have added some journal articles to further reading section and will continue to add on there as I find new information relevant here. Theses articles can be scoured for content to fill this article out. In addition, there are many foreign language obituaries and discussions of Whittaker and his work, including in French, German, and Russian. I am unable to accurately translate these and cannot use them as sources, but if others can, that is great and I just want to let you know content is out there. Whittaker had a career of the "highest distinction" and was extraordinarily prolific, with valuable contributions to mathematical physics which helped set the stage for the general theory of relativity, amongst many other achievements. In addition, his three of his books have been printed and standardized all over the world, printing multiple editions spanning across generations (his History and Whittaker and Watson have now been available for over a hundred years and show no sign of discontinuation). This, without a doubt, makes him exceptionally notable and this article should reflect that.Footlessmouse (talk) 23:34, 2 October 2020 (UTC)