August Otto Föppl (25 January 1854 – 12 August 1924) was a professor of Technical Mechanics and Graphical Statics at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

, Germany. He is credited with introducing the Föppl–Klammer theory and the

Föppl–von Kármán equations The Föppl–von Kármán equations, named after August Föppl and Theodore von Kármán, are a set of nonlinear partial differential equations describing the large deflections of thin flat plates. With applications ranging from the design of subm ...

(large deflection of elastic plates).

Life

His doctoral advisor was

Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann Gustav Heinrich Wiedemann (; 2 October 1826 – 24 March 1899) was a German physicist and scientific author. Life Wiedemann was born in Berlin the son of a merchant who died two years later. Following the death of his mother in 1842 he lived wi ...

and one of Föppl's first doctoral students was

Ludwig Prandtl Ludwig Prandtl (4 February 1875 – 15 August 1953) was a German fluid dynamicist, physicist and aerospace scientist. He was a pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of ...

, his future son-in-law. He had two sons

Ludwig Föppl Karl Ludwig Föppl (27 February 1887 – 13 May 1976) was a German mechanical engineer who succeeded his father, August Föppl as Professor of Technical Mechanics at the Technical University of Munich. During World War I, Föppl worked as a cry ...

and Otto Föppl.

who was a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and Professor of Technical Mechanics at the

. Otto Föppl who was an engineer and Professor of Applied Mechanics at the

Technical University of Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...

for 30 years.

Career

In 1894, Föppl wrote a widely read introductory book on

Maxwell's Maxwell's, last known as Maxwell's Tavern, was a bar/restaurant and music club in Hoboken, New Jersey. Over several decades the venue attracted a wide variety of acts looking for a change from the New York City concert spaces across the river. Ma ...

theory of electricity, titled ''Einführung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizität''. (This was the first German-language textbook on Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics and one of the books that influenced Einstein.) This 1894 book pioneered the use of Maxwell's theory in Germany and made Föppl famous as a scientist.

Gerald Holton Gerald James Holton (born May 23, 1922) is an American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinckrodt Profes ...

argues, that some arguments of Föppl concerning

electromagnetic induction Electromagnetic or magnetic induction is the production of an electromotive force (emf) across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field. Michael Faraday is generally credited with the discovery of induction in 1831, and James Clerk ...

, had some influence on

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

's first paper on

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws o ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foppl, August Otto 1854 births 1924 deaths Engineers from Hesse Technical University of Munich faculty People from Groß-Umstadt

Life

Career

See also

References

External links