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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (b. December 16, 1917 – March 18, 2008) was a British author and scientist born in Minehead, Somerset in England . Clarke is widely regarded as the inventor of the idea of the communications satellite though is likely more famous for his literary work. Clarke was the author of notable classics like Rendezvous with Rama, Childhood's End, The City and The Stars and 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as several short story anthologies like The Other Side of the Sky and The Nine Billion Names of God.

Sir Arthur is also a prominent scientist with world-wide influence: the geostationary orbit used for satellite communications is also called the Clarke Orbit. Though originally proposed by rocket engineer Herman Potočnik in 1928, Clarke popularized the idea in 1945. The Clarke Belt is also named for Sir Arthur, defined as an orbit 35,786 km (22 236.3895 miles) above mean sea level in the plane of the equator—as near to a perfect geostationary orbit as possible. The advantage of such an orbit for communications is that the satellite will appear to always be in the same spot directly above, making constant linkage with the ground possible.

The paranormal is another interest of Clarke's. He has hosted television series on the subject, most notably Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World.

Sir Arthur served in the RAF during World War Two as a radar specialist, a technology critical to the Battle of Britain. After the war he received a first-class degree in physics and mathematics from King's College London.

Sir Arthur resided in Sri Lanka. Until the 2004 tsunami, he ran a diving school on Hikkaduwa. He was deeply involved in education efforts in Sri Lanka and held dual citizenships in both the UK and Sri Lanka. Clarke died at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Tuesday, March 18, 2008.

Memorable quotes

"How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean."

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering."

"The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible."

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

External Links

• CNN orbituary
• Thinkexist quotations Arthur C. Clarke

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