On this day, 160 years ago, on September 2, 1865 (July 13, 1865 in the lunar calendar), Irish physicist and mathematician Hamilton passed away. Hamilton (1805-1865) was born on August 4, 1805 in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a solicitor in Dublin. Hamilton was smart since childhood and was called a child prodigy. At the age of three, he could read English and do arithmetic; at the age of five, he could translate Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and recite Homer's epics; At the age of nine, he became familiar with Persian, Arabic and Hindi. At the age of 14, he gained fame by talking to the Persian ambassador in Persian at a banquet welcoming the Persian ambassador in Dublin. In 1823, he entered the famous Trinity College with first place in the entrance examination. Later, he won the college's highest honorary awards in Classical Literature and Science many times due to his excellent results. He completed many papers on geometry and optics between 1823 and 1824, including a paper on caustic curves submitted to the Royal Irish Academy of Sciences in December 1924, which attracted the attention of the scientific community. On June 10, 1827, at the age of 22, Hamilton was appointed Royal Astronomical Researcher at Dunsink Observatory and Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College. In 1832, he became a member of the Royal Irish Academy of Sciences. In 1834, he published the historic paper "A Universal Method of Dynamics", which became a new milestone in the development of dynamics. In 1843, quaternion was officially proposed, an important achievement in algebra. In 1835, he was elected chairman of the British Society for the Advancement of Science held in Dublin and was awarded the title of knighthood the same year. In 1836, the Royal Society awarded him the Royal Medal for his achievements in optics. In 1837, he was appointed President of the Royal Irish Academy of Sciences, where he remained until 1845. In 1863, the newly established American Academy of Sciences appointed Hamilton as one of 14 foreign academicians. His research work covers many fields, with the greatest achievements being optics, mechanics and quaternions. The optics he studied were geometric optics, which had mathematical properties; Mechanics is about listing dynamic equations and solving them; thus Hamilton is mainly a mathematician. But what has the greatest impact in the history of science is his contribution to mechanics. Hamilton died in Dublin on September 2, 1865.