James Ivory (mathematician)

James Ivory
Born	17 February 1765 Dundee, Scotland
Died	21 September 1842 London, England
Nationality	Scottish
Fields	mathematics theology
Alma mater	Dundee Academy University of St Andrews Edinburgh University
Notable awards	Copley Medal (1814) Royal Medal (1826, 1839)

James Ivory, FRS FRSE KH LLD (17 February 1765 – 21 September 1842) was a Scottish mathematician. He was creator of Ivory's Theorem.

Ivory was born in Dundee, son of James Ivory the renowned watchmaker. The family lived and worked on the High Street in Dundee.

He was educated at Dundee Grammar School. In 1779 he entered the University of St Andrews, distinguishing himself especially in mathematics. He then studied theology; but, after two sessions at St Andrews and one at Edinburgh University, he abandoned all idea of the church, and in 1786 he became an assistant-teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy in the newly established Dundee Academy. Three years later he became partner in, and manager of, a flax spinning company at Douglastown in Forfarshire, still prosecuting in moments of leisure his favourite studies. He was essentially a self-trained mathematician, and was not only deeply versed in ancient and modern geometry, but also had a full knowledge of the analytical methods and discoveries of the continental mathematicians.

His earliest memoir, dealing with an analytical expression for the rectification of the ellipse, is published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1796); and this and his later papers on Cubic Equations (1799) and Kepler's Problem (1802) evince great facility in the handling of algebraic formulae. In 1804 after the dissolution of the flax-spinning company of which he was manager, he obtained one of the mathematical chairs in the Royal Military College, Great Marlow (afterwards removed to Sandhurst); and until the year 1816, when failing health obliged him to resign, he discharged his professional duties with remarkable success.

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