Ferdinand Minding

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Ferdinand Minding

Ernst Ferdinand Adolf Minding (* December 30, 1805 . Jul / 11 January 1806 greg. In Kalisz , then Prussia, now Poland, † May 1 jul. / May 13, 1885 greg. In Tartu , then Russia, now Estonia ) was a German-Russian mathematician.

life and work

When Minding was one year old, the family moved to Hirschberg in Silesia (then Prussia). After graduating from high school in 1824, he studied classical philology, philosophy and physics in Halle and Berlin (mathematics only self-taught). After graduating in 1827, he was initially an assistant teacher for mathematics, history and German at the grammar school in Elberfeld (today Wuppertal ). During this time he wrote his doctoral thesis and finally received his doctorate in Halle in 1829 with the thesis De valore intergralium duplicium quam proxime inveniendo . In November 1830 he became a private lecturer at the Humboldt University in Berlin and in 1834 at the Royal General Building School in Berlin . From 1843 he was a professor in Dorpat, where he taught physics in addition to mathematics. From 1851 to 1855 he was chairman of the faculty. In 1864 he became a Russian citizen and in the same year he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Integral panel by Minding, 1849

Following Carl Friedrich Gauß (whose treatise appeared in 1828), he devoted himself to differential geometry . In a work from 1830 he introduced geodetic curvature, which was rediscovered independently of Pierre Ossian Bonnet in 1848 (Gauß had not published corresponding studies by Gauß from 1825). In 1838 he investigated developable surfaces on surfaces of revolution. In 1839 he also proved the invariance of surface bending (Minding's theorem), that is, surfaces that locally have the same Gaussian curvature can also be developed locally on one another, which was also later proved by Bonnet. He examined surfaces of constant Gaussian curvature and also gave examples of pseudospheric surfaces (constant negative curvature) that were explicitly used by Eugenio Beltrami as models of non-Euclidean geometry. In addition to differential geometry, he worked on the integration of differential equations with integrating factors (for which he received the Demidow Prize of the St. Petersburg Academy in 1861), mechanics, continued fractions and Abelian integrals. He also wrote several textbooks. In addition, he published one of the first integral tables in 1849 . A hindrance in his work on integrals and differential equations was that he did not deal with the then modern function theory . For this reason the integral table contains very few definite integrals . He also published on mechanics and applications of probability theory.

He married Auguste Regulator in 1836 and had a son and two daughters with her.

Fonts

  • The beginnings of higher arithmetic , Berlin: Reimer 1832, digital copy, ETH library
  • Collection of integral boards for use in teaching at the Königl. General Building School and the Königl. Commercial Institute. Reimarus, Berlin 1849. Online at Google Books .
  • Handbook of differential and integral calculus and its applications to geometry and mechanics. Initially for use in lectures. F. Dümmler, Berlin.
    • First part: Containing differential and integral calculus, together with application to geometry , 1836, digitized version
    • Second part: containing the mechanics , 1838
  • On the curve of curved surfaces , Crelles J., Volume 18, 1838, pp. 365-368
  • How to decide whether two given curved surfaces can be developed on top of one another or not, along with remarks on surfaces of unchangeable curvature , Crelles J., Volume 19, 1839, pp. 370–387
  • Mechanik , Dove`s Repetitorium der Physik, Volume 5, 1844, pp. 1-87
  • The establishment of the class lottery with byes is arithmetically illuminated in terms of its average success for entrepreneurs and gamblers. A contribution to political arithmetic , Berlin: Veit 1842
  • Collection of integral panels , Berlin: Reimarus 1849

literature

  • Galchenkowa et al. a .: Ferdinand Minding. Nauka, Leningrad 1970, Russian.
  • Adolf Kneser : Overview of Ferdinand Minding's scientific work with biographical notes. In: Journal of Mathematics and Physics . Volume 45, 1900, p. 113.Sub Göttingen
  • Kurt-Reinhard Biermann : The mathematician Minding and the Berlin Academy. In: Monthly reports German Academy of Sciences . Volume 3, 1961, p. 128.
  • GW Lewitzky: Biographical dictionary of the professors and lecturers of the imperial University Jurieff (formerly Dorpat) for 100 years of its existence (1802-1902). Bd.I. Jurieff, 1902.
  • Gottlob Kirschmer:  Minding, Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 536 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • DBE , Vol. 7 (1998), p. 147.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Gregorian based on Neuer Deutscher Biographie: January 11, 1806; “MacTutor” (see web link) states January 23, 1806
  2. ^ New German biography and lecturers in mathematics at the Berlin University from 1810 to 1945
personal data
SURNAME Minding, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minding, Ernst Ferdinand Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Kalisch
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1885
Place of death Dorpat