English mathematician and physicist who attempted to provide a mechanical foundation for the theory of an elastic solid ether. To do so, he developed the mathematical theory of elasticity, proposing two different theories. In the process, he paved the way to modern theories of electricity and magnetism. Green also derived the laws of optics from a mathematical function expressing the properties of ether in analytic form. His most important work was An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism (1828), which contained Green's theorem (a special case of Gauss's theorem in the plane). Green's theorem was discovered independently in Russia by Ostrogradski. He recognized for the first time the importance of potential functions in a 1828 paper. He also introduced Green's functions as a means of solving boundary value problems and developed integral transform theorems.

Ostrogradski

Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)