Koch

Niels Fabian Helge von Koch

Born: 25 Jan 1870 in Stockholm, Sweden
Died: 11 March 1924 in Stockholm, Sweden

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Koch was a student of Mittag-Leffler and succeeded him in 1911 at Stockholm University. He is famous for the Koch curve. This is constructed by dividing a line into three equal parts and replacing the middle segment by the other two sides of an equilateral triangle constructed on the middle segment. Repeat on each of the (now 4) segments. Repeat indefinitely. It gives a continuous curve which is of infinite length and nowhere differentiable.

Koch's principal results were on infinitely many linear equations in infinitely many unknowns.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Show me von Koch's curve

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. E Hellinger and O Toepletz, Encyklopädie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften II (Leipzig, 1923-27). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996