Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten

Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten, also Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten (* December 15 1732 in Neubrandenburg, † April 17, 1787 in Halle ( Saale) ) was a German mathematician and professor at the universities of Rostock, Halle an der Saale and Biitzow and Rector of the latter.

Life

Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten was the second son and eldest surviving child of Neubrandenburg pharmacist Johann Christopher Karsten (1704-1779) and those coming from Güstrow pharmacist daughter Madeleine Sophie Thiel ( 1754 ) born. When his parents in 1737 when large Neubrandenburg town fire declining as their possessions and there were problems with the reconstruction of pharmacy in the subsequent period, the family moved 1740/41 through to Güstrow. There Karsten visited the Guestrower Cathedral School, where he was a high school in 1749 and at the same time received private instruction in mathematics since 1747. In 1750, he enrolled to study theology and philosophy at the University of Rostock. From 1752 to 1754 he continued his studies at the University of Jena. After private studies of mathematics Karsten in 1755 received his doctorate in Rostock to master mathematics. That same year, Karsten lectured as a Privatdozent in Rostock before 1758 occupied the chair of logic at the University of Rostock.

1760 Karsten moved to the newly founded University of princely Biitzow and henceforth took the chair of logic, mathematics and physics. 1764 Karsten was first elected Rector of the University Biitzow, continue to 1768/69 joined. He also directed the University Observatory Biitzow, focusing on his home, now Pfaffenstr. 3 was.

An appeal to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences suggested from Karsten 1778 and followed the call to the University Hall, as the successor of Johann Andreas Segner of.

Karsten was a member of the Princely Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Dutch Society of Sciences in Harlem, the Royal Danish Society of Sciences in Copenhagen and the Economic Society in Leipzig.

Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten [ Family Gatherings: Karsten 1] is the oldest member of in North and Central Germany ramified family of scholars. Of his eight siblings, his youngest brother Lorenz Karsten as an economist and agronomist was particularly well known.

Karsten was married twice and had the second marriage to the daughter Katharina Rostock professor fighter (1738-1779) six children, among them the later mineralogist Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten.

Works

Karsten has written numerous books and articles on mathematics, physics and engineering as well as academic official papers. Outstanding are its achtbändiger " teaching concept in all of mathematics ", 1st Edition 1767-1777, the three-volume " First Principles of Mathematical Sciences", from 1778 to 1780 and the " Extract from the rudiments and the teaching of mathematical concepts Sciences", 1781, 2nd Aufl. in 1785.