August Föppl

August Föppl
August Föppl
Born	(1854-01-25)25 January 1854 Groß-Umstadt, Hesse
Died	12 October 1924(1924-10-12) (aged 70) Ammerland
Nationality	German
Scientific career
Fields	physics, engineering, mathematics
Thesis	Theorie des Fachwerks (1880) Theorie der Gewölbe (1881) both monographs combined into 1886 dissertation Mathematische Theorie der Baukonstruktionen[1]
Doctoral advisor	Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann
Doctoral students	Hermann Föttinger Ludwig Prandtl

August Otto Föppl (25 January 1854 – 12 August 1924)^[2] was a professor of Technical Mechanics and Graphical Statics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is credited with introducing the Föppl–Klammer theory and the Föppl–von Kármán equations (large deflection of elastic plates).

Life

Föppl was born in Groß-Unstadt, Hesse where his father Carl August Föppl was a physician. He went to study engineering at Darmstadt Polytechnic in 1869 and then moved to Stuttgart where he studied under Otto Mohr. He then went to Karlsruhe. He then taught engineering at Holzminden from 1877 to 1892 while also studying physics at Leipzig University. His doctoral advisor was Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann and his thesis was on the strength of timber frames and arches. one of Föppl's first doctoral students was Ludwig Prandtl, his future son-in-law. He married Emilie Schenck (1856–1924) and they had two sons and three daughters. His daughter Gertrud married Prandtl. Son Ludwig Föppl became a mechanical engineer and Professor of Technical Mechanics at the Technical University of Munich. Otto Föppl became an engineer and Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Technical University of Braunschweig for 30 years.^[3]

Career

In 1894, Föppl wrote a widely read introductory book on Maxwell's theory of electricity, titled Einführung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizität.^[4] This 1894 book pioneered the use of Maxwell's theory in Germany and made Föppl famous as a scientist.^[5] Gerald Holton argues, that some arguments of Föppl concerning electromagnetic induction, had some influence on Albert Einstein's first paper on special relativity.^[6]

See also

• Rotordynamics

References

1. Kurrer, Karl-Eugen (9 January 2012). The History of the Theory of Structures: From Arch Analysis to Computational Mechanics. John Wiley & Sons. p. 1997. ISBN 978-3-433-60134-1.
2. Bromberg, Joan (1970–1980). "Föppl, August". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 5. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.
3. Weierud, Frode; Zabell, Sandy (6 June 2019). "German mathematicians and cryptology in WWII". Cryptologia. 44 (2). Note 69: Taylor & Francis: 51. doi:10.1080/01611194.2019.1600076. ISSN 1558-1586. S2CID 198336556.
4. Föppl, August (1894). Einführung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizität. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. (This was the first German-language textbook on Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics and one of the books that influenced Einstein.)
5. Timoshenko, Stephen (1 January 1983). History of Strength of Materials: With a Brief Account of the History of Theory of Elasticity and Theory of Structures. Courier Corporation. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-486-61187-7.
6. Holton, Gerald (1988) [1973], Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein (revised ed.), Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-87748-1

External links

• August Föppl at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Literature by and about August Föppl in the German National Library catalogue