Carl Brandan Mollweide

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World map according to Mollweide

Carl Brandan Mollweide (born February 3, 1774 in Wolfenbüttel , † March 10, 1825 in Leipzig ) was a German mathematician and astronomer. He taught in Halle and Leipzig.

life and work

Mollweide showed an interest in mathematics relatively late in school and taught himself higher mathematics essentially as a self-taught, drawing attention while calculating a solar eclipse as a student. From 1793 he studied for three years at the University of Helmstedt , where Johann Friedrich Pfaff was his teacher in mathematics. Pfaff also used him for lectures, but he had to give up the position due to health problems. He spent two years in his parents' house and recovered so much that in 1800 he was able to accept a professorship for mathematics at the pedagogy in Halle. In 1806 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Mollweide 1811 Observer at the university - Observatory Leipzig , which he remained until 1816, and associate professor of astronomy. In 1812 he was appointed full professor of astronomy and in 1814 full professor of mathematics . From 1820 to 1823 he was Dean of the Philosophical Faculty.

The Mollweide projection is named after him, an equal area map projection that he introduced in 1805, as well as a set of trigonometric formulas in the triangle, the Mollweide formulas .

After his death, his private library, of which the catalog still exists (with 12,631 volumes, including duplicates from the university library), was auctioned off in 1826.

Mollweide and Goethe

Historic Newtonian color wheel in the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Tokyo

Mollweide was an advocate of Newton's optics . The fight against Goethe's color theory , which was published in 1810, was a matter close to his heart, for example in the text Examination of the color theory of Mr. Goethe and defense of Newton's system against it (Halle 1810). Mollweide demonstrated Newton's theory of colors with a color wheel, a flywheel with applied color segments. According to Newton's theory, white should be seen on the rotating disk due to the additive color mixing . Goethe called this conclusion "Newtonian nonsense" in a letter to Karl Friedrich Reinhard on October 8, 1810. Unfortunately only a light, dirty gray was actually visible. This in turn stimulated Goethe to a mocking verse, which he "dedicated" to the whitener , i.e. Mollweide, and which was only published posthumously:

Newtonian knows how to show the children who are
immediately inclined to pedagogical seriousness,
A teacher once appeared, with flywheel antics,
A color circle was closed on it.
That was now. “Take a close look at me!
What do you see, boy? 'Well, what do I see? Gray !
“You don't see right! Do you think I suffer from this?
White stupid boy white ! that's what Mollweide says ! "

As we know today, the resulting gray is caused by the quality of the colors on the sectors and by secondary effects in the light reflection.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Carl Brandan Mollweide  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 171.
  2. ^ German biography - online version, NDB article Mollweide . Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Karl Friedrich Reinhard, Friedrich von Müller: Goethe and Reinhard: Correspondence in the years 1807 - 1832 . Insel, Wiesbaden 1957, p. 142 (615 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ The verb dorlen comes from the Thuringian dialect and means to swirl , to turn around in a circle , s. Albert L. Lloyd, Otto Springer, Rosemarie Lühr: Etymological Dictionary of Old High German: Volume 2 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, Zurich 1988, ISBN 978-3-525-20768-0 , p. 873 (597 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Sebastian Donat, Hendrik Birus: Goethe: A last universal genius? Wallstein, Munich 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-361-2 , pp. 91 (145 p., Limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Mollweide, Carl Brandan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolfenbüttel
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1825
Place of death Leipzig