Peter Guthrie Tait (28.04.1831-4.07.1901) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1879). He was born in Dalkeith. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1852). In 1854-60 he was a professor at Queen's College in Belfast, and in 1860-1901 at the University of Edinburgh.
His work was in mechanics, electricity, thermoelectricity, thermodynamics, the kinetic theory of gases and the history of physics. He studied friction in gases and the influence of a magnetic field on the spectrum of gases.