Gustav Kirchhoff

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff ( born March 12, 1824 in Königsberg ( Prussia); † October 17, 1887 in Berlin) was a German physicist who has made particularly outstanding services to the study of electricity.

Life

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff studied 1842-1847 mathematics and physics at the University of Königsberg, among others, with Franz Neumann and Friedrich Julius Richelot. From 1850 to 1854 he worked at the University of Breslau, then moved to the University of Heidelberg and came in 1875 as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. He held until 1886 this place.

In 1857 he married Clara Richelot († 1869), daughter of King Friedrich Julius Berger mathematician Richelot. With her ​​Kirchhoff had two sons and two daughters. After the death of his first wife he married in 1872 Brömmel Luise, who was employed at the Heidelberg Eye Clinic. Kirchhoff's grave is located at the old St. Matthew's Cemetery in Berlin -Schöneberg.

Work

Kirchhoff is renowned for its rules of electrical circuits to describe the dependence of electric voltage, electric current and electrical resistance, which he found in 1845. These so-called Kirchhoff's rules are fundamental for general construction and analysis of electrical circuits and electrical engineering.

Kirchhoff in 1861, discovered along with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, in the spectral analysis of the mineral water of the newly developed Maxquelle in Durkheim, the elements cesium and rubidium. Through their studies, it was also possible to explain the Fraunhofer line, thereby creating one of the essential foundations of modern astronomy.

Kirchhoff's law of radiation states that matter of any kind sends a continuous radiation when heated, which is invisible or visible depending on the temperature. This radiation is called the temperature or thermal radiation. An extensive experimental investigation of this law was not initially think, as the means for the measurement of high temperatures and less radiant energy were missing. The far-reaching significance, however, was immediately recognized. The concept developed from the black body led to quantum physics.

Kirchhoff also dealt with the theory of plates; the Piola -Kirchhoff stress tensor, the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis and the so-called Kirchhoff plates remember.

Honors

The lunar crater Kirchhoff is named after him, as is the " Kirchhoff Institute for Physics" ( KIP ) of the University of Heidelberg. On February 15, 1974, the German Federal Post Office Berlin was the occasion of his 150th birthday, issuing a special stamp ( MiNr. 465). In Berlin -Adlershof and Bad Durkheim a street bears his name.

Writings (selection )

  • Chemical Analysis by Spectral observations. In: Annals of physics and chemistry. Volume 189, Number 7, 1861, pp. 337-381 ( with Robert Bunsen, PDF).
  • Collected Essays. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 1882 ( Edited by Ludwig Boltzmann ).
  • Collected Essays. Supplement. Johann Ambrosius Barth, Leipzig, 1891 (Edited by Ludwig Boltzmann ).
  • Lectures on mathematical physics. 4 volumes, B. G. Teubner, Leipzig from 1876 to 1894. Volume 1: Mechanics. 1st edition, B. G. Teubner, Leipzig 1876 ( online).
  • Volume 2: Mathematical optics. BG Teubner, Leipzig 1891 (Edited by Kurt Hensel, online).
  • Volume 3: electricity on and magnetism. BG Teubner, Leipzig 1891 ( Edited by Max Planck, online).
  • Volume 4: Theory of Heat. BG Teubner, Leipzig 1894 ( Edited by Max Planck, online).
Henry Enfield Roscoe Franz Ernst Neumann Plate theory Lunar craters Kirchhoff (crater) Michel catalog Annalen der Physik Walter Gerlach Neue Deutsche Biographie Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Woldemar Voigt Name Authority File
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