Franz Aepinus

Franz Maria Aepinus, Franz Ulrich Theodor Maria Aepinus, or Aepinus or high ( born December 13, 1724 in Rostock, † August 22, 1802 in Tartu ) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist and natural philosopher.

Life

Aepinus came from a scholarly family. An ancestor, John Aepinus (1499-1553), was one of the leading theologians of the Reformation and the first to gräcisierte the family name high or Huck. The father of Aepinus was a professor of theology at the University of Rostock. Aepinus studied medicine and mathematics at the universities of Jena and Rostock. In 1747 he obtained his MA with a dissertation on the paths of falling bodies. During this time he worked extensively with mathematical problems, such as algebraic equations, the solution of partial differential equations and negative numbers.

Aepinus 1755 was appointed director of the Berlin Observatory, where he made ​​the acquaintance of Leonhard Euler, and where he also lived in the Prussian capital during the two years of his stay. Aepinus became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Although he was director of the observatory, he made no significant astronomical studies. Here, however, his most important scientific works were created. Being originally from Rostock Johan Carl Wilcke students drew his attention to problems of electricity. Wilcke himself worked on his dissertation on the properties of the tourmaline minerals and recognized the piezoelectric properties of the material. Aepinus investigated the change in the polarization of tourmaline and other crystals with a change in temperature ( pyroelectric effect). He found that the electrical properties of the crystal were similar to the magnetic. He concluded that electricity and magnetism would have the same origin. 1759, he wrote about the work Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi ( attempt at a theory of electricity and magnetism ).

1757 Aepinus settled down as a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, where he became professor of physics. He stood by Empress Catherine II in high esteem, so that they entrusted him with the education of her son Paul I.. He tried in vain to use the confidence of the close of the Tsarina, to establish a system of regular schools in the Russian Empire.

Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov in particular rejected the theories of Aepinus from, however, probably due to personal reasons, the German had yet made ​​a quick career at court. In 1798, Aepinus withdrew into private life.

The lunar crater Aepinus was named after him.

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