Marin Mersenne

Marin Mersenne

Marin Mersenne (born September 8, 1588 in Sountière near Bourg d'Oizé , Maine , † September 1, 1648 in Paris ; scholar's name Marinus Mersenius ) was a French theologian , mathematician and music theorist .

Life

Mersenne learned from 1604 to 1609 at the Collège Henri-IV de La Flèche together with René Descartes and studied theology at the Paris Sorbonne from 1609 to 1611 . He joined the Paulaner Order in 1611 and was ordained a priest the following year . From 1620 onwards he traveled extensively through the whole of Western and Southern Europe.

While initially following a narrow-minded scholasticism, he switched sides in the middle of his life. As a vehement opponent of Aristotelianism and mystical teachings ( alchemy , astrology , Kabbalah , Rosicrucian ) he supported the modern natural sciences, the astronomical theories of Galileo and the philosophy of René Descartes .

From 1623 he visited Galileo and Descartes personally and corresponded intensively with other leading scholars such as Pierre Gassendi , Gilles Personne de Roberval , Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat . This made him an important mediator of information and contacts between contemporary scientists. It was said that informing Mersenne of a discovery was as much as publishing it in print. He encouraged Gassendi to reply to Descartes' meditations ; He made Huygens aware of the usefulness of the pendulum in time measurement (which led to the invention of the pendulum clock ).

Services

Mersenne made important contributions not only as a mediator but also as a researcher. In 1626 he published a collection of texts Synopsis mathematica on mathematics and mechanics and made contributions to acoustics and music theory as well as optics. He also examined cycloids .

His list of - according to his conjecture - prime numbers , which take the form, is famous ${\displaystyle M_{p}}$

${\displaystyle M_{p}=2^{p}-1}$

have, where is also a prime number. Numbers with this property are now called Mersenne prime numbers . However, his list contained errors and was also incomplete. Nonetheless, it inspired generations of number theorists to undertake further research. ${\displaystyle p}$

In acoustics, Mersenne investigated the relationship between frequency and pitch. He found out that the frequency of a vibrating string is directly proportional to the square root of the tension and inversely proportional to the string length and the square root of the cross section : ${\displaystyle F}$ ${\displaystyle l}$ ${\displaystyle q}$

${\displaystyle v\sim {\frac {1}{l}}{\sqrt {\frac {F}{q\rho }}}}$

Mersenne also measured the first value for the speed of sound in air (according to Ullmann 1996; p. 2) by measuring the time between sighting a muzzle flash and the perception of the shot. He received the (too high) value 448 m / s. In the Harmonie universelle of 1636, he tried again to measure using a different method: He measured the time until the direct sound came back as an echo from a wall at a known distance, and thus obtained the value 316 m / s. The correct value is about 342 m / s.

Harmony universal (1636)

In his book Traité de l'harmonie universelle (1636–37), Mersenne treated the music theory (" doctrine of affect ") and practice of his time - a valuable source of information on the history of music in the 17th century, including precise descriptions and illustrations of the included musical instruments known to him at the time. One of his contributions is his suggestion for the tempered semitone, which was more precise than that of the composer Vincenzo Galilei .

His better-known publications also include Quaestiones celeberrimae in Genesim (1623), a pamphlet against mystical teachings, and La Vérité dans les sciences (1625, The Truth in the Sciences ).

The lunar crater Mersenius and the asteroid (8191) Mersenne are named after him.

Fonts

• Questiones Celeberrimae in Genesim , Paris 1623.
• L'impiété des Déistes, athées et libertins de ce temps . Paris 1624, Faks.Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1975.
• La vérité des sciences: contre les skeptiques ou pyrrhoniens . Paris 1625, Ed. et annot. par Dominique Descotes, Champion, Paris 2003, 1025 p.
• Traité de l'harmonie universelle , Paris 1627, Reprint Corpus des Oeuvres de Philosophie en Langue Francaise, Librairie Anthème Fayard, 2003.
• Questions Harmoniques , Paris 1634.
• Questions inouyes, Questions harmoniques, Questions théologiques, Les Méchaniques de Galilée, Les Préludes de l'harmonie universelle , Paris 1634, Reprint Corpus des Œuvres de Philosophie en Langue Française, Librairie Anthème Fayard, 1985.
• Harmony universal: Contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique . (Paris 1636), Reprint Center nat. de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1965.
• Cogitata physico mathematica , Paris 1644.
• Harmonicorum, libri XII: in quibus agitur de sonorum natura, causis, et affectibus; de consonantiis, dissonantiis, rationibus, generibus, modis, cantibus, compositione, orbisque totius harmonicis instrumentis . Reprint of the Paris 1648 edition; Ed. aucta: Minkoff, Genève 1972, ISBN 2-8266-0368-X .
• Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne, publiée et annotée par Cornelis de Waard , Bernard Rochot et Armand Beaulieu . 17 vol., CNRS, Paris 1932-1988.

literature

• Alistair C. Crombie: Mersenne, Marin . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 9 : AT Macrobius - KF Naumann . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1974, p. 316-322 .
• Robert Lenoble : Mersenne ou la naissance du mécanisme , Paris, 1943, Paris: Vrin 1971
• Hartmut Lohmann:  Mersenne, Marin. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 5, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-043-3 , Sp. 1334-1336.
• Jean-Pierre Maury À l'origine de la recherche scientifique: Mersenne. Vuibert, Paris 2003.

On Mersenne and music theory:

• Wolfgang Köhler: The wind instruments from the "Harmonie Universelle" by Marin Mersenne. Translation and commentary of the “Livre cinquiesme des instruments à vent” from the “Traité des instruments”. Moeck, Celle 1987, ISBN 3-87549-029-0 ( Also : Bochum, Univ., Diss .: “Livre cinquiesme des instruments à vent” by Marin Mersenne. Appreciation, translation, commentary. )
• Hellmut Ludwig: Marin Mersenne and his music theory. Bookstore of the orphanage, Halle / Saale 1935 ( contributions to music research 4, ZDB -ID 401299-9 ).
• Ingo Negwer: Lute and theorbo in Marin Mersennes Harmonie universal. On the performance practice of early baroque music in France. Deutsche Lautengesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-934069-01-0 ( Also : Bochum, Univ., Diss., 1997).
• Albrecht D. Stoll: Figure and Affect. On court music and bourgeois music theory of the Richelieu epoch. 2nd revised edition. Schneider, Tutzing 1981, ISBN 3-7952-0197-7 ( Frankfurt contributions to musicology 4) (also: Frankfurt / Main, Univ., Dissertation 1974).
• Dieter Ullmann: Chladni and the development of acoustics from 1750-1860. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel u. a. 1996, ISBN 3-7643-5398-8 , pp. 1 ff. ( Science Networks, historical Studies 19).

Web links

Commons : Marin Mersenne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Marin Mersenne in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications by and about Marin Mersenne in VD 17 .
• Philippe Hamou:  Marin Mersenne. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• http://www.mathematik.ch/mathematiker/mersenne.php
• Bust portraits: 1 , 2 , 3 , Manskopf Collection
• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Marin Mersenne. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Fonts from Mersenne ( uk url )
• Spektrum.de: Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) September 1, 2013