Meissel

Daniel Friedrich Ernst Meissel

Born: 31 July 1826 in Germany
Died: 11 March 1895

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Ernst Meissel studied at the University of Berlin working under Jacobi. He also had contacts with Dirichlet. His doctorate is from Halle. He taught in a number of places, teaching in Kiel from 1871 until the end of his life.

Meissel's mathematical work covers a number of areas. He worked on prime numbers giving the result that there are 50847478 primes less than 10^9. Lehmer showed, 70 years later, that this is 56 too few. In addition to other number theory work on Möbius inversion and the theory of partitions, Meissel wrote on Bessel functions, asymptotic analysis, refraction of light and the three body problem.

His main skill was in numerical calculations and manipulation of complicated expressions. His work was based on the mathematics he learnt as a student and he appears not to have kept up with new developments.

References:

  1. J Peetre, Outline of a scientific biography of Ernst Meissel (1826-1895), Historia Mathematica 22 (1995), 154-178. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996