Jump to content

Ludwig Adolf Sohncke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludwig Adolf[a] Sohncke (20 June 1807 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Kingdom of Prussia – 16 January 1853 in Halle, Kingdom of Prussia) was a German mathematician. He was father of the mathematician Leonhard Sohncke.

Life and work

[edit]

Ludwig Adolf Sohncke studied at the Albertina University in his native town Königsberg, was doctoral student of Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi.[1] There he began his scientific career as private lecturer in 1833. Together with Jacobi and Franz Ernst Neumann, he was co-founder and co-director of the Königsberg Seminar of Physics that aimed to install a more intensive and effective model for teaching Physics and mathematics.[2] In this institution, Otto Hesse and Theodor Schönemann belonged to his students.[3]

In 1835, he was claimed — by recommendation of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel — to the University of Halle as extraordinary professor of mathematics in succession of Julius Plücker,[4] where he advanced to ordinary professor in 1839. He worked with varied interests in analysis, mainly in the field of elliptic functions, where he made discoveries over the complex multiplication,[5] further in geometry, mechanics, and history of mathematics.[6] He translated the History of Geometry by Michel Chasles (1837) into the German ,language,[7] and edited some of his analytic lectures. Seen as a whole, his list of publication is small;[8] possible reasons could be difficult economic condition,[9] since the payments for professors in Halle were low and often was not enough for their living,[10] or a great burden of teaching, or a problem with alcohol.[9]

Together with the physics professor Kämtz, Sohncke made an attempt in 1837 to found a seminar for mathematics and physics similar to that he had been co-founder in Königsberg, but their initiative was opposed by the biologist Schweigger. After long negotiations, a "Seminar für Mathematik und die gesammten Naturwissenschaften" (Seminar for Mathematics and whole Sciences) was founded with Sohnche as head of the mathematical division; later he became director of the seminar.[11] Although it brought out considerable success, it never got the importance of the Königsberg seminar.[12]

Ludwig Adolf Sohncke died in Halle on 16 January 1853; his academic successor was Ferdinand Joachimsthal.[13]

Writings

[edit]
  • "Motus corporum coelestium in medio resistante", Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (in Latin), 10: 23–40, 1833
  • "Aequationes modulares pro transformatione functionum ellipticarum undecimi et decimi tertii et decimi septimi ordinis", Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (in Latin), 12: 178, 1834
  • "Aequationes modulares pro transformatione Functionum Ellipticarum", Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (in Latin), 16: 97–130, 1837, doi:10.1515/crll.1837.16.97 (wrong spelling as "Sohnke")
  • "Ueber das sphärische Viereck", Archiv der Mathematik und Physik (in Latin), 4: 447–448, 1844
  • Analytische Geometrie (in German), Halle: H. W. Schmidt, 1851
  • Analytische Theorie der Statik (in German), Halle: H. W. Schmidt, 1853
  • Sohncke, L. A., ed. (1854), Verzeichniss der Bücher über die gesammten Zweige der Mathematik, welche in Deutschland und dem Auslande vom Jahre 1830 bis Mitte 1854 erschienen sind (in German)

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ also written "Adolph"

References

[edit]

Sources

[edit]