Johann Samuel König

Johann Samuel King ( born July 31, 1712 Büdingen; † August 21, 1757 in Zuilenstein Amerongen ) was a German mathematician.

Life

Johann Samuel King was the son of originating from Bern, princely ysenburgischen inspector and later professor of Oriental Studies in Bern Samuel Henry King and Anna Maria Nöthiger. He studied from 1729 at the Academy of Lausanne and 1730 mathematics and the theory of gravitation Newton ( set forth in the main work Principia ) by Johann Bernoulli in Basel and later his son Daniel Bernoulli. His fellow students were there Maupertuis and Alexis Claude Clairaut -. He also studied the philosophy of Leibniz, whose followers he was with Jacob Hermann. From 1735, he continued his studies at the Leibniz - trailer Christian Wolff in Marburg. From 1737 he lived in Berne, where he wanted to pursue a career as a lawyer. In 1738 he went to Paris, where Maupertuis introduced him to Voltaire and the Marquise du Châtelet. In 1740 he became a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, as a result of work on the form of honeycombs. 1741, he became a private teacher of the Marquise du Châtelet in mathematics and ( Leibnizian ) philosophy. He separated from her in a dispute over his pay, was initially in Paris before he returned to Bern. In 1744 he was exiled for ten years from Bern because he had signed a liberal political petition. A call to Russia, he struck out in 1745 and was instead a professor of philosophy and from 1747 for mathematics at the University Frjentsjer. He was also in 1748 the Council and the librarian of the Erbstatthalters of the Netherlands, William of Orange, and in 1749 professor at the Military Academy in The Hague. 1749, he was taken under the mediation of Maupertuis to the Berlin Academy. He died of heart failure ( " dropsy ").

King was considered a very mighty. Through work on the principle of least action he broke out in 1751 in a bitter priority dispute. This claimed by Euler and Maupertuis principle was ( as King ) was already mentioned in 1707 by Leibniz in a letter to Jakob Hermann. But on request he could not present the original. Euler and Maupertuis accused King of having falsified the stated obtained only in a copy letter. This even then extremely dubious accusation was refuted by Gerhardt ( 1898) and Kabitz (1913). However, it is doubtful to what extent the question Leibniz quote actually anticipates the principle of least action. The dispute drew wide circles in the former spiritual world. After a Jugement the Berlin Academy, led by Maupertuis against King Voltaire took for this party and mocked Maupertuis in the Diatribe du Docteur akakia (1752 ). Maupertuis, who had initially supported the king, presented him the Marquis du Châtelet and Voltaire and was in contention for the tutor fees settled, was deeply hurt and left Berlin. The controversy, which divided the Berlin Academy, overshadowing even the king 's last years.

Published in 1751 by the King named him theorem of classical mechanics ( König's theorem ).

He was also a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.

Swell

• JJ O'Connor, EF Robertson: Johann Samuel König ( 1998) ( online)
• JJ O'Connor, EF Robertson: The Berlin Academy and forgery ( 2003) ( online)
• CI. Gerhardt: The four letters of Leibniz, the Samuel King has published in the Appel au public, sorrow MDCCLIII, Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, I, 419-427. (1898 )
• W. Kabitz: the published via a discovered in Gotha copy of S. King in his quarrel with Maupertuis and the Academy, its time for phony letter stated Leibniz, Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, II, 632-638. (1913 )