Fritz Gassmann

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Fritz Gassmann (born July 27, 1899 in Zurich ; † April 9, 1990 there ) was a Swiss geophysicist and mathematician .

Life

Gassmann was the son of a teacher, studied at the ETH Zurich from 1919 and received his doctorate there in 1926 under George Pólya ("On relationships between the prime ideals of an algebraic body and the substitutions of its group"). He then turned to geophysics and worked for two years as assistant for technical mechanics at Ernst Meissner and assistant to the Swiss Seismological Service at Alfred de Quervain at the Central Meteorological Institute . In 1928 he completed his habilitation in geophysics at the ETH Zurich. From 1928 to 1942 he was a mathematics teacher at the Aarau Cantonal School and from 1937 to 1942 also rector. In addition, he taught as a private lecturer in geophysics at the ETH Zurich. In 1942 he became extraordinary , and in 1952 full professor of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, where he founded the Institute of Geophysics in 1942, he was on its board until the 1969th In 1957 the Swiss Seismological Service was incorporated into the institute. In 1952 he was visiting professor at Purdue University and in 1962 at the University of Illinois .

In geophysics he dealt with many sub-areas. An equation for the propagation of seismic waves in porous media (rocks) under load is named after him. For this he was honored by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists .

In mathematics, the Gassmann triple (1926) is named after him (a group G with a faithful representation in sets X, Y, so that every element of G has the same number of fixed points in X and Y, but X and Y are not isomorphic as G quantities are). Sometimes it is also named after Toshikazu Sunada .

Fonts

  • with Max Weber : Introduction to applied geophysics. Hallwag, Bern 1960.
  • Seismic prospecting. A textbook and auxiliary book for evaluating transit time measurements. Birkhäuser, Basel 1972.
  • Comments on the above work by Hurwitz (On relationships between the prime ideals of an algebraic field and the substitutions of its group). In: Mathematical Journal . Volume 25, 1926, pp. 665-675 (Gassmann-Tripel).
  • About the elasticity of porous media. In: Quarterly publication of the Natural Research Society in Zurich . Volume 96, 1951, pp. 1–23 (Gassmann equation; English translation , PDF, 187 kB).
  • Elastic waves through a packing of spheres. In: Geophysics. Volume 16, 1951, pp. 673-685.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fritz Gassmann in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used
  2. ↑ During his time as a private lecturer at the ETH, he founded the forerunner in 1934 as a one-man business, only supported by his wife.
personal data
SURNAME Gassmann, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geophysicist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1990
Place of death Zurich