Georg Helm

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Georg Ferdinand Helm (born March 15, 1851 in Dresden ; † September 13, 1923 there ) was a German mathematician .

Life

Memorial for Georg Helm on the Old Annenfriedhof in Dresden.
Georg Helm's grave in the Old Annenfriedhof

Helm received his school leaving certificate in 1867 at the Dresden Annenschule . He then studied mathematics and natural sciences , first at the Dresden Polytechnic and from 1871 to 1873 at the Universities of Leipzig (with Carl Gottfried Neumann ) and Berlin .

Helm taught mathematics and theoretical physics at the Technical University (or at the Dresden Polytechnic ) from 1888 to 1922, and from 1892 as a full professor. From 1906 he was a professor for applied mathematics. At times he was rector of the TH Dresden. He worked on an interdisciplinary basis; his teaching activities included, for example, an insurance seminar. Helm coined the term “mathematical chemistry”.

Helm was a representative of the energetics of Wilhelm Ostwald and, as his representative, at the meeting of naturalists in Lübeck in 1895, engaged in a scientific discussion with Ludwig Boltzmann , who, as a resolute representative of atomistics, was an opponent of Ostwald's views. Ostwald also gave a lecture at the meeting, but Boltzmann concentrated on his student Helm. He had specifically invited him and Ostwald to look for a dispute with the nuclear critics (in addition to the representatives of the energetics, this was primarily Ernst Mach , who was not present). Boltzmann remained the “winner” in this dispute and Arnold Sommerfeld , who was present, compared the devastating criticism, surprising for Helm, with a bullfight in which the bull (Boltzmann) was victorious.

In the field of economics , Georg Helm postulated that money is the economic equivalent of low entropy ( Doctrine of Energy , 1887).

Georg Helm was buried in the Helm / Zeuner family grave - the engineer Gustav Zeuner , among others, is buried here . His grave is located in the Alten Annenfriedhof in Dresden and is looked after by the Association for the Promotion of Students of the Technical University of Dresden eV. In addition, he is commemorated today in the memorial for professors of the TU Dresden in the same cemetery.

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literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stiller: Boltzmann. P. 99. There a statement by Helm is quoted that he had fallen into a trap at the meeting.
  2. ↑ Sommerfeld quoted in Eberhard Scheibe , Philosophie der Physiker, Beck 2006
personal data
SURNAME Helm, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Helm, Georg Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1923
Place of death Dresden