Sydney Samuel Hough: Difference between revisions

Sydney Samuel Hough FRS (11 June 1870, Stoke Newington – 8th July 1923, England) was a British applied mathematician and astronomer.

Hough studied at Christ´s Church Hospital School in London and then studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow.

From 1898 to 1907, he was the chief assistant of David Gill in South Africa at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, where he was the director from 1907 to 1923. When he first joined Gill, Hough was outstanding in applied mathematics but had little experience in practical astronomy — however, Hough learned quickly from Gill and provided valuable assistance. Hough concentrated on the completion of Gill's programme and compiled five of the twelve volumes of the Southern African part of the Carte du Ciel. Hough measured with high accuracy the positions of more than 20,000 stars.

Hough was elected in 1902 a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1908 became the first President of the Royal Society of South Africa. His mathematical work was mainly concerned with the theory of tides.

See also

• Hough function

External links

• publications by S.S. Hough in Astrophysics Data System
• obituaries for S.S. Hough in Astrophysics Data System