ATWOOD, GEORGE (1746-1807), English mathemati cian, was educated at Westminster school and Trinity college, Cambridge. He received from William Pitt an office in the cus toms which was practically a sinecure and left him leisure for his studies. He was the inventor of Atwood's machine.
Atwood's most important works are: Treatise on the Rectilinear Motion and Rotation of Bodies (1784) , which describes the machine, since called by Atwood's name, for verifying experimentally the laws of simple acceleration of motion and Dissertation on the Construction and Properties of Arches (18o1-04).