Julius Plücker -- a path from geometry to optics

DOI10.1016/J.HM.2023.06.002MaRDI QIDQ6082473zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Michael Wiescher

Publication date 6 November 2023

Published in Historia Mathematica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2023.06.002

zbMATH Keywords

geometryopticsphysics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55)

Review text

In 1846 Julius Plücker announced to give up his research in mathematics, better in analytical geometry, to devote himself to physics. Since then many reasons have been offered to explain his at first sight sudden decision. In the present paper the author argues that Plücker's competition and arguments with Steiner do not necessarily provide the explanation for the former's change of field of research. Having sketched Plücker's education and his early career, the author describes Plücker's shift of interest by producing evidence for a new interpretation for his move from abstract analytic geometry to experimental physics, to optics in particular.

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Cites work

• A history of optics. From Greek antiquity to the nineteenth century
• Der Gegensatz zwischen Julius Plücker und Jakob Steiner im Lichte ihrer Beziehungen zu August Leopold Crelle
• Felix Klein. Visions for mathematics, applications and teaching
• History of the mathematics of double refraction
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3779268 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3618078 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5678188 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3410989 (Why is no real title available?)
• John Tyndall and the early history of diamagnetism
• Julius Plücker, his family and his academic years
• Mathematical models as artefacts for research: Felix Klein and the case of Kummer surfaces
• Models from the nineteenth century used for visualizing optical phenomena and line geometry
• Synthetic and analytic geometries in the publications of Jakob Steiner and Julius Plücker (1827--1829)
• The complex universe of Roger Penrose
• Worlds Out of Nothing

Cited in

(2)

• A German physicist’s travels in Great Britain Julius Plücker’s visits from 1853 to 1866
• Felix Klein's early contributions to \textit{anschauliche Geometrie}

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