Gustav Kirchhoff’s Followers (11)

Gustav Kirchhoff

Born

in Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia, Russian Federation

March 12, 1824

Died

October 17, 1887

Website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Kirchhoff

Genre

Science, Physics, Spectroscopy

Influences

Christiaan Huygens, Robert Bunsen, Joseph von Fraunhofer, James Clerk ...more

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Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.

He coined the term "black body" radiation in 1862, and two different sets of concepts (one in circuit theory, and one in thermodynamics) are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him; there is also a Kirchhoff's Law in thermochemistry. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after him and his colleague, Robert Bunsen.

Gustav Kirchhoff was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, the son of Friedrich Kirchhoff, a lawyer, and Johanna Henriette Wittke. He graduated from the Albertus University of Königsberg in 1847 where h Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.

He coined the term "black body" radiation in 1862, and two different sets of concepts (one in circuit theory, and one in thermodynamics) are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him; there is also a Kirchhoff's Law in thermochemistry. The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after him and his colleague, Robert Bunsen.

Gustav Kirchhoff was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, the son of Friedrich Kirchhoff, a lawyer, and Johanna Henriette Wittke. He graduated from the Albertus University of Königsberg in 1847 where he attended the mathematico-physical seminar directed by Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, Franz Ernst Neumann and Friedrich Julius Richelot. He married Clara Richelot, the daughter of his mathematics professor Richelot. In the same year, they moved to Berlin, where he stayed until he received a professorship at Breslau.

Kirchhoff formulated his circuit laws, which are now ubiquitous in electrical engineering, in 1845, while still a student. He completed this study as a seminar exercise; it later became his doctoral dissertation. In 1857 he calculated that an electric signal in a resistanceless wire travels along the wire at the speed of light. He proposed his law of thermal radiation in 1859, and gave a proof in 1861. He was called to the University of Heidelberg in 1854, where he collaborated in spectroscopic work with Robert Bunsen. Together Kirchhoff and Bunsen discovered caesium and rubidium in 1861. At Heidelberg he ran a mathematico-physical seminar, modelled on Neumann's, with the mathematician Leo Koenigsberger. Among those who attended this seminar were Arthur Schuster and Sofia Kovalevskaya. In 1875 Kirchhoff accepted the first chair specifically dedicated to theoretical physics at Berlin.

In 1862 he was awarded the Rumford Medal for his researches on the fixed lines of the solar spectrum, and on the inversion of the bright lines in the spectra of artificial light.

He contributed greatly to the field of spectroscopy by formalizing three laws that describe the spectral composition of light emitted by incandescent objects, building substantially on the discoveries of David Alter and Anders Jonas Ångström (see also: spectrum analysis).

He also contributed to optics, carefully solving Maxwell's equations to provide a solid foundation for Huygens' principle (and correct it in the process).

Kirchhoff died in 1887, and was buried in the St Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin (just a few meters from the graves of the Brothers Grimm).

Leopold Kronecker is buried in the same cemetery.

Kirchhoff showed in 1858 that the variation of the heat of a chemical reaction is given by the difference in heat capacity between products and reactants: dΔH / dT = ΔCp. Integration of this equation permits the evaluation of the heat of reaction at one temperature from measurements at another temperature. ...more

Combine Editions
Gustav Kirchhoff’s books

Average rating: 5.0 · 1 rating · 0 reviews · 65 distinct works

	Researches On The Solar Spectrum, And The Spectra Of The Chemical Elements; Volume 2 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mathematische Physik 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Researches On the Solar Spectrum, and the Spectra of the Chemical Elements, Tr. by H.E. Roscoe 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2015 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Abhandlungen �ber Mechanische W�rmetheorie by Gustav Kirchhoff, Max Planck 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gustav Robert Kirchhoff's Treatise "On the Theory of Light by Gustav Kirchhoff, Klaus Hentschel (Editor), Ning Yan Zhu (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Abhandlungen Über Emission und Absorption: Ueber die Fraunhofer'schen Linien (1859); Ueber den Zusammenhang Zwischen Emission und Absorption von Licht und Wärme (1859); Ueber des Verhältniss Zwisch 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gesammelte Abhandlungen: Nachtrag (Classic Reprint) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vorlesungen Über Mathematische Optik (Classic Reprint) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vorlesungen Über Mechanik (Classic Reprint) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vorlesungen Über Mathematische Physik: Mechanik (Classic Reprint) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Gustav Kirchhoff (?)

“Look here, I have succeeded at last in fetching some gold from the sun.

{After his banker questioned the value of investigating gold in the Fraunhofer lines of the sun and Kirchhoff handing him over a medal he was awarded for his investigations.}”
― Gustav Kirchhoff

tags: chemistry, experiment, fraunhofer, gold, joseph-von-fraunhofer, science, spectroscopy, sun

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