Christian Andreas Doppler (November 29, 1803 – March 17, 1853) was an Austrian mathematician and physicist. He is most famous for what is now called the Doppler effect, which is the apparent change in frequency and wavelength of a wave as perceived by an observer moving relative to the wave's source.
Life and work
Christian Doppler was born in Salzburg, Austria, the son of a stone-mason. Doppler could not work in his father's business because of his generally weak physical condition. After completing high school Doppler studied astronomy and mathematics in Vienna and Salzburg and started to work at the Prague Polytechnic (now Czech Technical University), where he was appointed professor for mathematics and physics in 1841. (Note: At that time, the present Czech Republic was part of the Austrian Empire.)
Only a year later, at the age of 39, Doppler published his most notable work, "Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels" (On the coloured light of the binary stars and some other stars of the heavens).[1] In this work, Doppler postulated his principle that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer (later coined the Doppler effect), and he tried to use this concept for explaining the colour of binary stars. The Doppler effect of sound was verified by Buys Ballot in 1845. In Doppler's time in Prague as a professor he published over 50 articles on mathematics, physics and astronomy.
Doppler's research in Prague was interrupted by the revolutionary incidents of March 1848, when he fled to Vienna. There he was appointed head of the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University of Vienna in 1850. During his time there, Doppler, along with Franz Unger, played an influential role in the development of young Gregor Mendel, known as the founding father of genetics, who was a student at the University of Vienna from 1851 to 1853.
Doppler died on March 17, 1853 at age 49 from a pulmonary disease in Venice (also at that time part of the Austrian Empire). His tomb is just inside the entrance of the Venetian island cemetery of San Michele.[2]
References
- ^ An English translation, and the original German version, of Doppler's work is found in Eden, Alec (1992). The Search for Christian Doppler. Springer-Verlag. - This book also contains Eden's study of Doppler's full name. Eden believed that it was "Christian Andreas Doppler".
- ^ Štoll, Ivan (1992). "Christian Doppler - Man, Work and Message". The Phenomenon of Doppler. Prague: The Czech National University. 28.
Further reading
- Peter M. Schuster: Moving the Stars - Christian Doppler: His Life, His Works and Principle, and the World After. - Pöllauberg, Austria: Living Edition, 2005. - ISBN 3-901585-05-2 (translated by Lily Wilmes; Webpage of the author)
See also
External links
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