Listing

Johann Benedict Listing

Born: 25 July 1808 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Died: 24 Dec 1882 in Göttingen, Germany

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Listing's family was of Czech descent. A student of Gauss in 1829, he became a lecturer in Hannover. He was appointed to Göttingen where he worked with Wilhelm Weber. Listing became professor of physics in Göttingen in 1849. Listing wrote the book Vorstudien zur Topologie in 1847. It was the first use of the word topology. The subject was known as analysis situs for many years and only in the late 1920's was the English word topology used by Lefschetz. In 1858 Listing discovered the properties of the Möbius band at almost the same time, and independently of, Möbius. Listing produced a major work on optics and other work on applied mathematics. References: 1. J-C Pont, La topologie algŽbrique (Paris, 1974). 2. E Breitenberger, Johann Benedict Listing, Neue Deutsche Biographie 14 (Berlin, 1952- ), 700-701. 3. P G Tait, Johann Benedict Listing, Nature 27 (1882-83), 316. References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Listing's work on topology

References:

  1. J-C Pont, La topologie algébrique (Paris, 1974).
  2. E Breitenberger, Johann Benedict Listing, Neue Deutsche Biographie 14 (Berlin, 1952- ), 700-701.
  3. P G Tait, Johann Benedict Listing, Nature 27 (1882-83), 316. 
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