Giovanni Battista Guglielmini

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giovanni Battista Guglielmini (born August 16, 1763 in Bologna , † December 15, 1817 there ) was an Italian scientist . He is known for being the first to experimentally demonstrate the rotation of the earth .

biography

After studying philosophy and spending two years in Rome, he wrote the essay Riflessioni sopra un nuovo esperimento in prova del diurno moto della terra in 1789 (reflections on a new type of experiment to prove the rotation of the earth). The experiment described there, the measurement of the eastward deflection during free fall, he carried out in 1791 on the tower degli Asinelli . He published the results in 1792. Since the Coriolis force , on which the eastward deflection is based, was not fully understood at the time, his experiment was later found to be flawed and his conclusions insufficient. Nevertheless, they formed the basis on which Johann Friedrich Benzenberg (1802 and 1804) and Ferdinand Reich (1831) built.

From 1794 to 1817 Guglielmini was a mathematics professor at the University of Bologna . From around 1802 to 1810 he was responsible for the city's water supply system. He was probably not a direct descendant of the famous physicist and engineer Domenico Guglielmini . His health was not good and he died at the age of 54.

In 1837, the city of Bologna placed a monument to him in the form of a marble statue in the city cemetery.

Works

literature

See also

personal data
SURNAME Guglielmini, Giovanni Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian scientist
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH Bologna , Italy
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1817
Place of death Bologna , Italy