Ernst Meissel

Daniel Friedrich Ernst Meissel (born July 31, 1826 in Eberswalde in Brandenburg , † March 11, 1895 in Kiel ) was a German astronomer and mathematician.

Life

Meissel attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Berlin and, after graduating from high school in 1847, studied mathematics at the Humboldt University in Berlin with Carl Gustav Jacobi and Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet . In 1850 he received his doctorate in Halle ( De serie quaedam Jacobiana ), but continued to study in Berlin for the state examination as a teacher. In 1852 he became a teacher at the Bergakademie Berlin and also taught at the Bauakademie . In the same year he became director of the Royal Provincial Trade School in Iserlohn . In 1871 he became director of the boys' bourgeois school in Kiel (which became Oberrealschule in 1882, today the Humboldt School ), where he stayed for the rest of his career.

plant

Meissel dealt with number theory, analysis (differential equations, asymptotic developments, theta functions , elliptical functions , Bessel functions ), spherical trigonometry and applications such as hydrodynamics , the three-body problem in celestial mechanics and light refraction in the atmosphere. He is still known today for his calculations of the number of prime numbers less than or equal to x. Chisel, who was an excellent calculator (both numerically and at manipulating complicated formulas), destined for . His algorithm was later improved by Derrick Henry Lehmer and the accuracy of Meissel's (without a calculating machine) calculations confirmed (for Meissel's value of 50,847,478 was only 56 too low). Meissel's approach was made more efficient in 1985 by Jeffrey Lagarias , Victor S. Miller and Andrew Odlyzko by using sieving methods from analytic number theory and later improved again by other authors using further results from analytic number theory. ${\ displaystyle \ pi (x)}$ ${\ displaystyle \ pi (x)}$ ${\ displaystyle x = 10 ^ {7}, 10 ^ {8}, 10 ^ {9}}$ ${\ displaystyle x = 10 ^ {9}}$

literature

J. Peetre: Outline of a scientific biography of Ernst Meissel (1826-1895) , Historia Mathematica Volume 22, 1995, pp. 154-178.

Web links

John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Ernst Meissel. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
Publications by E. Meissel in the Astrophysics Data System
Kr .: Death notice. Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. 137 (1895), p. 239 (obituary for EDF Meissel)

Individual evidence

↑ JC Lagarias, VS Miller and AM Odlyzko: Computing π (x): the Meissel-Lehmer method , Math. Comp., 44 (1985) 537-560
↑ Chris Caldwell: How many primes are there? 1.2. A table of values of pi (x)

personal data
SURNAME	Chisel, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Meissel, Daniel Friedrich Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German astronomer and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	July 31, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH	Eberswalde , Brandenburg
DATE OF DEATH	March 11, 1895
Place of death	Kiel

[1] JC Lagarias, VS Miller and AM Odlyzko: Computing π (x): the Meissel-Lehmer method , Math. Comp., 44 (1985) 537-560

[2] Chris Caldwell: How many primes are there? 1.2. A table of values of pi (x)