Tschirnhaus

Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus

Born: 10 April 1651 in Kieslingswalde (near Görlitz), Germany
Died: 11 Oct 1708 in Dresden, Germany

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Tschirnhaus worked on the solution of equations and the study of curves. He discovered a transformation which, when applied to an equation of degree n, gave an equation of degree n with no term in x^n^-^1 and x^n^-^2. He also studied catacaustic curves in 1682, these being the envelope of light rays emitted from a point source after reflection from a given curve. There is a sinusoidal spiral named after him.

Tschirnhaus was a scientist, and among other things, he experimented making porcelain from clay mixed with fusible rock in 1675. A factory at Meissen started production of his porcelain in 1710 and the first sales of any consequence of Tschirnhaus's porcelain took place at the Leipzig Fair in 1713.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Tschirnhaus's work on equations

Tell me about Tschirnhaus's cubic curve

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. J E Hofmann, Drei Sätz von Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus über Kreissehnen, Studia Leibnitiana 3 (19710, 99-115.
  3. M Kracht, E W von Tschirnhaus : His Role in Early Calculus and His Work and Impact on Algebra, Historia Mathematica 17 (1990), 16-35. 
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JOC/EFR February 1996