1. Arthur Cayley By Juan Alvarado Jr

2. Early Life Arthur Cayley was born in Richmond, London, England, on 16 August 1821. As a child, Cayley enjoyed solving complex math problems for fun. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he excelled in Greek, French, German, and Italian, as well as mathematics. He worked as a lawyer for 14 years.

3. Contribution to Math He proved the “Cayley Hamilton theorem” that every square matrix is a root of its own characteristic polynomial. He was the first to define the concept of a group in the modern way as a set with a binary operation satisfying certain laws. Formerly, when mathematicians spoke of "groups", they had meant permutation groups.

4. Misc He was a British mathematician. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics. Honorary Fellow at Trinity College. As a Lawyer Arthur produced between 200 and 300 papers.

5. References "Cayley biography." www.history.mcs. N.p., 6/29/11. Web. 29 Jun 2011. "Arthur Cayley." www2.stetson.com. N.p., 6/29/11. Web. 29 Jun 2011.