Theodor Reye

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Theodor Reye

Karl Theodor Reye (born June 20, 1838 in Ritzebüttel near Cuxhaven , † July 2, 1919 in Würzburg ) was a German mathematician .

Live and act

Reye went to the learned school of the Johanneum in Hamburg and initially studied mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic in Hanover and in Zurich , where he turned to theoretical physics under the influence of Rudolf Clausius . He went to Göttingen, where he heard Bernhard Riemann's lectures and received his doctorate in 1861 (The mechanical theory of heat and the law of tension in gases). He then taught at the Polytechnic in Hanover and from 1863 in Zurich at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, first as a private lecturer and from 1867 as a professor.

Using the Graphical statics of Karl Culmann he learned projective geometry know in the form of Karl von Staudt's hard to understand work that he only in a two- and then three-volume textbook geometry of position represented (1866, 1868). The book had six editions by 1923 and was also translated into English, French and Italian. Then in 1870 he was appointed to the chair for geometry and graphic statics at the newly founded Polytechnic in Aachen . In 1872 he moved to the newly founded University of Strasbourg , where he taught mathematics alongside Elwin Bruno Christoffel . In 1886/87 he was rector of the university. In 1909 he retired. In 1918 he was expelled after the end of the First World War and moved to live with his daughter in Würzburg.

Reye treated projective geometry on a synthetic basis. The Reyean configuration (made up of 12 points, 16 straight lines, 12 planes) is named after him. In addition to the geometry of the situation , he also wrote a book on spherical geometry ( Synthetic Geometry of Spheres 1879).

In addition to geometry, he also dealt with meteorology. A book about cyclones (1872, 2nd edition 1880) even gave him a call to the newly founded Seewarte in Hamburg.

In 1877 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Theodor Reye  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 200.
personal data
SURNAME Reye, Theodore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reye, Karl Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Ritzebüttel near Cuxhaven
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1919
Place of death Wurzburg