Ernst Meissner

Ernst Meissner , also Meißner (born September 1, 1883 in Zofingen , † March 17, 1939 in Zollikon ), was a Swiss mathematician.

Meissner was the son of an entrepreneur in Zofingen. He attended the Aarau Cantonal School , where he had the same mathematics teacher (Heinrich Ganter) as Albert Einstein , who was later his colleague in Zurich. Meissner studied mathematics and physics at the Polytechnic (later ETH Zurich ) from 1902 . In 1907 he received his doctorate under Adolf Hurwitz at the University of Zurich ( on Liouville's number-theoretical formulas ), then spent a year at the University of Göttingen with Felix Klein , David Hilbert and Hermann Minkowski and, after his habilitation in 1909, was a private lecturer and from 1910 full professor of technical mechanics at the ETH Zurich. In 1938 he gave up his professorship.

Meissner dealt with pure mathematics, such as number theory and geometry, as well as applied mathematics (graphical solution of ordinary differential equations and graphical determination of Fourier coefficients) and theoretical mechanics, for example earthquake waves, (nonlinear) vibrations and shell theory.

In geometry, two three-dimensional bodies of constant width are named after him ( Meissner body ). The assumption that the Meissner bodies have minimal volume among all three-dimensional convex bodies of constant width is unsolved. In the two-dimensional case, Reuleaux triangles have minimal area under the areas of constant width.

literature

Hans Brauchli: Meissner, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 697 f. ( Digitized version ).
Louis Kollros: Obituary. In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society. 1939, pp. 290-296 (French).
Hans Ziegler: Obituary. In: Journal for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics. Volume 19, 1939, p. 192.
Elisabeth Graf, Hans Ziegler: Ernst Meissner (1883–1939). In: Argovia , annual journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau, vol. 68–69, 1958, pp. 521–522 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Erwin Neuenschwander : Ernst Meissner. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

^ Mathematics Genealogy Project
↑ Ernst Meissner On sets of points of constant width , quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society Zurich, Volume 56, 1911, pp. 42–50; Ernst Meissner, Friedrich Schilling Three plaster models of bodies of constant width , Journal for Applied Mathematics and Physics, Volume 60, 1912, pp. 92–94
↑ Bernd Kawohl, Christof Weber: Meissner's Mysterious Bodies , Math. Intell., Vol. 33, No. 3, 2011, pp. 94-101, with Meissner's biography (PDF; 415 kB)
↑ They are also shown in Hilbert, Cohn-Vossen Illustrative Geometry , Springer Verlag, 1932, p. 191 (Figures 228a, b without mentioning the author Meissner) as part of the mathematical models produced by the Martin Schilling company.

personal data
SURNAME	Meissner, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	September 1, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zofingen
DATE OF DEATH	March 17, 1939
Place of death	Zollikon

[1] Mathematics Genealogy Project

[2] Ernst Meissner On sets of points of constant width , quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society Zurich, Volume 56, 1911, pp. 42–50; Ernst Meissner, Friedrich Schilling Three plaster models of bodies of constant width , Journal for Applied Mathematics and Physics, Volume 60, 1912, pp. 92–94

[3] Bernd Kawohl, Christof Weber: Meissner's Mysterious Bodies , Math. Intell., Vol. 33, No. 3, 2011, pp. 94-101, with Meissner's biography (PDF; 415 kB)

[4] They are also shown in Hilbert, Cohn-Vossen Illustrative Geometry , Springer Verlag, 1932, p. 191 (Figures 228a, b without mentioning the author Meissner) as part of the mathematical models produced by the Martin Schilling company.