Mathematician — Jakob Steiner (Utzenstorf 1796 – Bern 1863) was a Swiss mathematician, regarded as one of the greatest geometers of the nineteenth century and one of the founders of modern projective geometry. The son of farmers, he only learned to read and write at the age of fourteen, but his extraordinary geometric intuition led him to become a professor at the University of Berlin. He favoured purely synthetic, that is geometric, methods, avoiding algebraic calculation. In physics his name is linked to the parallel axis theorem, known as the Huygens–Steiner theorem, used to calculate the moments of inertia of rigid bodies.
Trivia
He attended no school until he was eighteen, when he enrolled at the institute of the educator Pestalozzi, yet he became one of the most original geometers in history.
Theories and contributions
- Huygens–Steiner theorem (parallel axes) — The moment of inertia about an axis at distance from the centre of mass is .
Featured in chapters
Linked atoms
2 linked atoms.