Gustav Ferdinand Mehler

Gustav Ferdinand Mehler ( born December 13, 1835 in Schönlanke; † July 13, 1895 in Elbing ) was a German mathematician.

Mehler was born as the son of the director in court Schönlanke, first attended the local high school and then, when his father was transferred in 1847 to Bromberg, the local high school, which he successfully completed in 1852.

His studies continued Mehler continues in Breslau and Berlin. Here, he was influenced primarily by Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet. After passing the state examination, he was well on April 1, 1858 Member of the mathematical seminar, which was at the Friedrich- Wilhelms -Gymnasium in Berlin and was led by Karl Heinrich Schell Bach.

After Mehler had been some auxiliary teacher at various high schools, he was hired at Easter 1859 final at the high school to Mrs. city. 1863 went to the junior high school St. Johann in Gdansk, then emigrate in 1868 to Elbing, where he worked until his death.

1868 Mehler was given the rare distinction that it Breslauer Faculty of Philosophy honoris causa for Doctor Philosophiae doctorate and, as it says in the diploma " cum de gymnasiorum juventute ad matheseos cognitionem form anda et excolenda tum vero de litteris mathematicis augendis promovendisque praeclaro merito ".

The work Mehlers extended in two directions: first, they served the purposes of teaching and secondly, they were purely scientific.

First published in 1859 his textbook laws of elementary mathematics, which he wrote at the suggestion Schell Bach and has appeared in many editions.

In his scientific works, Mehler shows as a student Dirichlet. His main fields were the theory of definite integrals and their applications to the potential theory, the representation of common functions with the aid of certain elementary functions and related problems of the theory of electricity.

Of particular importance was his work on electricity distribution. Here Mehler introduces a new type of features, the cone functions, since he arrives at them by the problem of electricity distribution on a ending in their apex half- conical surface. he examined these functions back in various directions, especially its relationship with the spherical functions.

Mehler was not married, but lived with his two sisters in a household. He is regarded as a humble and thorough scientist.