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At the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, a wrangler is a student who has completed the third year (called Part II) of the Mathematical Tripos with first-class honours. The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
The Cambridge Mathematical Tripos was a distinctive written examination of undergraduate students of the University of Cambridge. ...
The highest-scoring student is named the "senior wrangler"; the second highest-scoring student is the "second wrangler"; the third highest is the "third wrangler", and so on. Last is (or was) the wooden spoon. A Wooden Spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. ...
Past wranglers
Senior wranglers have included some of Britain's most brilliant mathematicians and scientists, including John Herschel, George Stokes and Lord Rayleigh and J. E. Littlewood. John Couch Adams scored so well, that there was a greater gap between him and the second wrangler than between the second wrangler and the wooden spoon. John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel (7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English mathematician and astronomer. ...
George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet (13 August 1819–1 February 1903) was an Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist. ...
See also Rayleigh fading Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh number Rayleigh waves Rayleigh-Jeans law External links Nobel website bio of Rayleigh About John William Strutt MacTutor biography of Lord Rayleigh Categories: People stubs | 1842 births | 1919 deaths | Nobel Prize in Physics winners | Peers | British physicists | Discoverer of a chemical element ...
John Edensor Littlewood (June 9, 1885 - September 6, 1977) was a British mathematician. ...
John Couch Adams (June 5, 1819 – January 21, 1892), was a British mathematician and astronomer. ...
Interestingly, there are some equally if not more famous names associated with the rank of second wrangler (such as James Clerk Maxwell, J.J. Thomson and Lord Kelvin). Legend has it that Kelvin was so confident that he had come top of the exam that he asked his servant to run to the Senate House and check who the second wrangler was. The servant returned and informed him, "You, sir!". It is also suggested that the final exam required the students to write a proof of a theorem (which Kelvin himself had provided the proof for, earlier in the course); unfortunately, because he had created it, it hadn't occurred to him to learn it, and he spent a lot of time working it out from scratch - while the student who achieved Senior Wrangler put it down to having committed the proof to memory. James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist, born in Edinburgh. ...
Sir Joseph John Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940), often known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist, the discoverer of the electron. ...
William Thomson, Archbishop of York, has the same name as this man. ...
There has long been a culture of fierce competition at mathematics exams at Cambridge. However, it is certainly not true to say that top marks in the Cambridge mathematics exam guaranteed the senior wrangler success in life; the exams were largely a test of speed in applying familiar rules, and some of the most inventive and original students of Mathematics at Cambridge did not come top of their class (Hardy was 4th, Sedgwick 5th, Malthus was 9th and Keynes was 12th) and some fared even worse (Pebody was not even a wrangler). G. H. Hardy Professor Godfrey Harold Hardy FRS (February 7, 1877 – December 1, 1947) was a prominent British mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. ...
Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick (March 22, 1785–January 27, 1873) was one of the founders of modern geology. ...
The Rev. ...
John Maynard Keynes (right) and Harry Dexter White at the Bretton Woods Conference John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB (pronounced kÄnz / kAnze) (June 5, 1883 – April 21, 1946) was a British economist whose ideas had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on...
Luke Pebody (born 1977) is a former mathematician who solved the necklace problem. ...
The first woman to top the maths list, albeit unofficially, was Philippa Fawcett, who took the exams in 1890. At the time, women were not officially ranked, although they were told how they had done compared to the male candidates, so she was ranked "above the senior wrangler". Philippa Fawcett Philippa Garrett Fawcett (April 4, 1868 - June 10, 1948) was an English mathematician and educationalist. ...
1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...
The examination was the most important in Britain at the time, and the results were given great publicity. In 1865 Lord Rayleigh was senior wrangler and the Times of 30 January had a leader saying there was no reason to fear that he had gained this distinction through favoritism accorded to the heir to a peerage! 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ...
January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
In the early 20th century, the order of merit was abolished and lists of students who had completed the mathematics exams were sorted alphabetically in each of the three classes of honours, and were not based on individual marks. The last official senior wrangler was P. J. Daniell who graduated in 1909. 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
Students who achieve second-class and third-class mathematics degrees are known as Senior Optimes (second-class) and Junior Optimes (third-class). Cambridge did not divide its examination classification in mathematics into 2:1s and 2:2s until 1995 but now there are Senior Optimes Division 1 and Senior Optimes Division 2. At the University of Cambridge in England, an optime is a student who graduates with a second-class (Senior Optime) or third-class (Junior Optime) honours mathematics degree. ...
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme used to distinguish between the achievements of undergraduate degree holders (such as those gaining bachelors degrees or undergraduate masters degrees) in the United Kingdom. ...
1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Sources The story about Rayleigh comes from - Peter Groenewegen (2003). A Soaring Eagle: Alfred Marshall 1842-1924. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ISBN 1858981514.
Alfred Marshall was the commoner who came second to Rayleigh. Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall (July 26, 1842–July 13, 1924), born in Bermondsey, London, England, became one of the most influential economists of his time. ...
- D. O., Forfar ‘What became of the senior wranglers?’, Mathematical spectrum 29 (1996/7), 1-4.
Survey of the subsequent careers of senior wranglers during the 157 years (1753-1909) in which the results of Cambridge’s mathematical tripos was published in order of merit.
There is a very thorough account of the Cambridge system in the 19th century in
- Andrew Warwick (2003) Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226873749
Appendix A lists the top 10 wranglers from 1865 to 1909 with their coaches and their colleges. 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ...
1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
External links Information on the wranglers in the period 1860-1940 can be extracted from the BritMath database Many of the wranglers who made carreers in mathematics can be identified by searching on "wrangler" in - The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
See also - Donald MacAlister, Senior Wrangler in 1877. MacAlister was one of the many wranglers who achieved distinction outside of mathematics. The postcard portrait was part of the cult of celebrity surrounding the senior wrangler.
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