Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The me ...
n-born
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, who contributed to the physics of
shock wave
In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
s. The ratio of one's speed to
that of sound is named the
Mach number in his honour. As a
philosopher of science
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, he was a major influence on
logical positivism
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
and
American pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Pr ...
. Through his criticism of
Newton's theories of space and time, he foreshadowed
Einstein's
theory of relativity
The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...
.
Biography
Mach was born in
Chrlice (german: Chirlitz),
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The me ...
(then in the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
, now part of
Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
). His father, who had graduated from
Charles-Ferdinand University
)
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, established =
, type = Public, Ancient
, budget = 8.9 billion CZK
, rector = Milena Králíčková
, faculty = 4,057
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, students = 51,438
, underg ...
in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, acted as tutor to the noble
Brethon family in
Zlín
Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; german: Zlin) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 73,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice river. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the ...
in eastern Moravia. His grandfather, Wenzl Lanhaus, an administrator of the Chirlitz estate, was also master builder of the streets there. His activities in that field later influenced Ernst Mach's theoretical work. Some sources give Mach's birthplace as Tuřany (german: Turas, now also part of Brno), the site of the Chirlitz registry-office. It was there that Mach was baptised by Peregrin Weiss. Mach later became a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and an
atheist, but his theory and life was sometimes compared to
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
.
Heinrich Gomperz called Mach the "Buddha of Science" due to his
phenomenalist approach to the "Ego" in his ''Analysis of Sensations''.
Up to the age of 14, Mach was educated at home by his parents. He then entered a
Gymnasium in
Kroměříž
Kroměříž (; german: Kremsier) is a town in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is known for the Kroměříž Castle with castle gardens, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town centre with the c ...
(german: Kremsier), where he studied for three years. In 1855 he became a student at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
. There he studied
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
and for one semester medical physiology, receiving his doctorate in physics in 1860 under
Andreas von Ettingshausen with a thesis titled ''Über elektrische Ladungen und Induktion'', and his
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
the following year. His early work focused on the
Doppler effect in
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
and
acoustics
Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...
. In 1864, he took a job as professor of mathematics at the
University of Graz
The University of Graz (german: link=no, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, ), located in Graz, Austria, is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria.
History
The unive ...
, having turned down the position of a chair in surgery at the
University of Salzburg
The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university
A public university or public college is a univ ...
to do so, and in 1866 he was appointed professor of physics. During that period, Mach continued his work in
psycho-physics and in sensory perception. In 1867, he took the chair of experimental physics at the Charles-Ferdinand University, where he stayed for 28 years before returning to Vienna.
Mach's main contribution to physics involved his description and photographs of spark shock-waves and then ballistic shock-waves. He described how when a bullet or shell moved faster than the speed of sound, it created a compression of air in front of it. Using
schlieren photography
Schlieren photography is a process for photographing fluid flow. Invented by the German physicist August Toepler in 1864 to study supersonic motion, it is widely used in aeronautical engineering to photograph the flow of air around objects.
C ...
, he and his son Ludwig photographed the shadows of the invisible shock waves. During the early 1890s Ludwig invented an interferometer that allowed for much clearer photographs. But Mach also made many contributions to psychology and physiology, including his anticipation of
gestalt
Gestalt may refer to:
Psychology
* Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology
* Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy
* Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, an assessment of development disorders
* Gestalt Practice, a practice of self-exploration ...
phenomena, his discovery of the
oblique effect and of
Mach bands
Mach bands is an optical illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach. It exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray, as soon as they contact one another, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual s ...
, an inhibition-influenced type of visual illusion, and especially his discovery of a
non-acoustic function of the inner ear that helps control human balance.
One of the best-known of Mach's ideas is the so-called "
Mach principle", concerning the physical origin of inertia. This was never written down by Mach, but was given a graphic verbal form, attributed by
Philipp Frank
Philipp Frank (March 20, 1884 – July 21, 1966) was a physicist, mathematician and philosopher of the early-to-mid 20th century. He was a logical positivist, and a member of the Vienna Circle. He was influenced by Mach and was one of the Machis ...
to Mach himself, as, "When the subway jerks, it's the fixed stars that throw you down."
![Photography of bow shock waves around a brass bullet, 1888](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Photography_of_bow_shock_waves_around_a_brass_bullet%2C_1888.jpg)
Mach also became well known for his philosophy, developed in close interplay with his science. Mach defended a type of
phenomenalism
In metaphysics, phenomenalism is the view that physical objects cannot justifiably be said to exist in themselves, but only as perceptual phenomena or sensory stimuli (e.g. redness, hardness, softness, sweetness, etc.) situated in time and in ...
recognizing only
sensations as real. This position seemed incompatible with the view of atoms and molecules as external, mind-independent things. He famously declared, after an 1897 lecture by
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of ther ...
at the
Imperial Academy of Science in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
: "I don't believe that atoms exist!" From about 1908 to 1911,
Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...
criticized Mach's reluctance to acknowledge the reality of atoms as incompatible with physics. Einstein's
1905 demonstration that the statistical fluctuations of atoms allowed measurement of their existence without direct individuated sensory evidence marked a turning point in the acceptance of
atomic theory
Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter a ...
. Some of Mach's criticisms of Newton's position on space and time influenced Einstein, but later Einstein realized that Mach was basically opposed to Newton's philosophy and concluded that his physical criticism was not sound.
In 1898 Mach survived a cardiac arrest, and in 1901 he retired from the University of Vienna and was appointed to the upper chamber of the Austrian parliament. On leaving Vienna in 1913, he moved to his son's home in
Vaterstetten
Vaterstetten is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg. It lies east of Munich and is the district's biggest community. Vaterstetten is on the outskirts of Munich, roughly twenty minutes by S-Bahn from Marienplatz.
Geography ...
, near
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, where he continued writing and corresponding until his death in 1916, one day after his 78th birthday.
Physics
Most of Mach's initial studies in experimental physics concentrated on the
interference
Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to:
Communications
* Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message
* Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
,
diffraction
Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...
,
polarization and
refraction
In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenome ...
of light in different media under external influences. From there followed explorations in
supersonic fluid mechanics. Mach and physicist-photographer
Peter Salcher presented their paper on this subject in 1887; it correctly describes the sound effects observed during the supersonic motion of a
projectile. They deduced and experimentally confirmed the existence of a
shock wave
In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
of conical shape, with the projectile at the apex. The ratio of the speed of a fluid to the local
speed of sound
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or one kilometre in or one mile in . It depends strongly on temperature as w ...
''v
p''/''v
s'' is now called the
Mach number. It is a critical parameter in the description of high-speed fluid movement in
aerodynamics
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
and
hydrodynamics. Mach also contributed to
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
the hypothesis known as
Mach's principle
In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of gravitation theories, Mach's principle (or Mach's conjecture) is the name given by Einstein to an imprecise hypothesis often credited to the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. The hypothe ...
.
Philosophy of science
Empirio-criticism
From 1895 to 1901, Mach held a newly created chair for "the history and philosophy of the inductive sciences" at the University of Vienna. In his historico-philosophical studies, Mach developed a phenomenalistic
philosophy of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
that became influential in the 19th and 20th centuries. He originally saw scientific laws as summaries of experimental events, constructed for the purpose of making complex data comprehensible, but later emphasized mathematical functions as a more useful way to describe sensory appearances. Thus, scientific laws, while somewhat idealized, have more to do with describing sensations than with reality as it exists beyond sensations.
Mach's positivism also influenced many Russian
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
s, such as
Alexander Bogdanov. In 1908,
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
wrote a philosophical work, ''
Materialism and Empirio-criticism
''Materialism and Empirio-criticism'' ( Russian: ''Материализм и эмпириокритицизм, Materializm i empiriokrititsizm'') is a philosophical work by Vladimir Lenin, published in 1909. It was an obligatory subject of study ...
'', in which he criticized Machism and the views of "
Russian Machists". His main criticisms were that Mach's philosophy led to
solipsism
Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known a ...
and to the absurd conclusion that nature did not exist before humans:
Empirio-criticism is the term for the rigorously
positivist and radically
empiricist
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...
philosophy established by the German philosopher
Richard Avenarius
Richard Ludwig Heinrich Avenarius (19 November 1843 – 18 August 1896) was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism.
Life
Avenarius attended the Nicolaischule in L ...
and further developed by Mach, which claims that all we can know is our sensations and that knowledge should be confined to pure experience.
In accordance with empirio-critical philosophy, Mach opposed
Ludwig Boltzmann
Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann (; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics, and the statistical explanation of the second law of ther ...
and others who proposed an
atomic theory
Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter a ...
of physics. Since one cannot observe things as small as atoms directly, and since no atomic model at the time was consistent, the atomic hypothesis seemed unwarranted to Mach, and perhaps not sufficiently "economical". Mach had a direct influence on the
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...
philosophers and
logical positivism
Logical positivism, later called logical empiricism, and both of which together are also known as neopositivism, is a movement in Western philosophy whose central thesis was the verification principle (also known as the verifiability criterion o ...
in general.
To Mach are attributed a number of principles that distill his ideal of physical theorisation—what is now called "Machian physics":
# It should be based entirely on directly observable phenomena (in line with his positivistic leanings)
# It should completely eschew
absolute space and time
Absolute space and time is a concept in physics and philosophy about the properties of the universe. In physics, absolute space and time may be a preferred frame.
Before Newton
A version of the concept of absolute space (in the sense of a prefe ...
in favor of
relative motion
# Any phenomena that seem attributable to absolute space and time (e.g.,
inertia
Inertia is the idea that an object will continue its current motion until some force causes its speed or direction to change. The term is properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his first law ...
and
centrifugal force
In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force (also called a "fictitious" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It is directed away from an axis which is paralle ...
) should instead be seen as emerging from the distribution of matter in the universe.
The last is singled out, particularly by Einstein, as "the"
Mach's principle
In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of gravitation theories, Mach's principle (or Mach's conjecture) is the name given by Einstein to an imprecise hypothesis often credited to the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. The hypothe ...
. Einstein cited it as one of the three principles underlying
general relativity
General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
. In 1930, he wrote, "it is justified to consider Mach as the precursor of the general theory of relativity", though Mach, before his death, apparently rejected Einstein's theory. Einstein was aware that his theories did not fulfill all Mach's principles, and no subsequent theory has either, despite considerable effort.
Phenomenological constructivism
According to Alexander Riegler, Mach's work was a precursor to the influential perspective known as
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
. Constructivism holds that all knowledge is constructed rather than received by the learner. He took an exceptionally non-dualist, phenomenological position. The founder of radical constructivism,
von Glasersfeld, gave a nod to Mach as an ally.
Physiology
In 1873, independently of each other, Mach and the physiologist and physician
Josef Breuer
Josef Breuer ( , ; 15 January 1842 – 20 June 1925) was a distinguished physician who made key discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work in the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., developed the talking cure (cathar ...
discovered how the
sense of balance
The sense of balance or equilibrioception is the perception of balance and spatial orientation. It helps prevent humans and nonhuman animals from falling over when standing or moving. Equilibrioception is the result of a number of sensory syste ...
(i.e., the perception of the head's imbalance) functions, tracing its management by information the brain receives from the movement of
a fluid in the
semicircular canal
In mathematics (and more specifically geometry), a semicircle is a one-dimensional locus of points that forms half of a circle. The full arc of a semicircle always measures 180° (equivalently, radians, or a half-turn). It has only one line o ...
s of the
inner ear. That the sense of balance depends on the three semicircular canals was discovered in 1870 by the physiologist
Friedrich Goltz
Friedrich Leopold Goltz (14 August 1834 – 5 May 1902) was a German physiologist and nephew of the writer Bogumil Goltz.
Born in Posen (Poznań), Grand Duchy of Posen, he studied medicine at the University of Königsberg, and following two year ...
, but Goltz did not discover how the balance-sensing apparatus functions. Mach devised a swivel chair to test his theories, and Floyd Ratliff has suggested that this experiment may have paved the way to Mach's critique of a physical conception of absolute space and motion.
Psychology
![Mach bands - animation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Mach_bands_-_animation.gif)
In the area of sensory perception, psychologists remember Mach for the
optical illusion called
Mach bands
Mach bands is an optical illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach. It exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray, as soon as they contact one another, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual s ...
. The effect exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray as soon as they touch, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual system.
More clearly than anyone before or since, Mach made the distinction between what he called ''physiological'' (specifically
visual
The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (th ...
) and ''geometrical'' spaces.
Mach's views on mediating structures inspired
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and Social philosophy, social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his ret ...
's strongly
inductive position, which paralleled Mach's in the field of psychology.
Eponyms
In homage his name was given to:
*
3949 Mach, an asteroid
*
Mach, a lunar crater
*
Mach bands
Mach bands is an optical illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach. It exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray, as soon as they contact one another, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual s ...
, an optical illusion
*
Mach diamonds, seen in supersonic exhausts
*
Mach Five
The is the racing car Speed Racer (Go Mifune in the Japanese version) drives in the anime series of the same name (known as "''Mach Go! Go! Go!''" in Japan). The car was designed, built, and created by "Pops Racer" (Daisuke Mifune), Speed Race ...
, the car used by
Speed Racer
''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...
*
Mach number, the unit for speed relative to the speed of sound
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
Mach's principal works in English:
*
* with
Peter Slacher
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
*
* ''Popular Scientific Lectures'' (1895)
Revised & enlarged 3rd edition (1898)* with S.J.B. Sugden
''History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy''(1911)
* ''The Principles of Physical Optic''s (1926)
* ''Knowledge and Error'' (1976)
* ''Principles of the Theory of Heat'' (1986)
* ''Fundamentals of the Theory of Movement Perception'' (2001)
See also
*
Energeticism
*
Mach_(kernel)
*
Mach bands
Mach bands is an optical illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach. It exaggerates the contrast between edges of the slightly differing shades of gray, as soon as they contact one another, by triggering edge-detection in the human visual s ...
*
Mach disk
*
Mach reflection
Mach reflection is a supersonic fluid dynamics effect, named for Ernst Mach, and is a shock wave reflection pattern involving three shocks.
Introduction
Mach reflection can exist in steady, pseudo-steady and unsteady flows. When a shock wave, ...
*
Mach's principle
In theoretical physics, particularly in discussions of gravitation theories, Mach's principle (or Mach's conjecture) is the name given by Einstein to an imprecise hypothesis often credited to the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. The hypothe ...
*
Mach–Zehnder interferometer
The Mach–Zehnder interferometer is a device used to determine the relative phase shift variations between two collimated beams derived by splitting light from a single source. The interferometer has been used, among other things, to measure p ...
*
Stereokinetic stimulus
*
Visual space
Visual space is the experience of space by an aware observer. It is the subjective counterpart of the space of physical objects. There is a long history in philosophy, and later psychology of writings describing visual space, and its relationship ...
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
* Erik C. Banks: ''Ernst Mach's World Elements. A Study in Natural Philosophy''. Dordrecht: Kluwer (now Springer), 2013.
* John Blackmore and
Klaus Hentschel
Klaus Hentschel (born 4 April 1961) is a German physicist, historian of science and Professor and head of the History of Science and Technology section in the History Department of the University of Stuttgart. He is known for his contributions in ...
(eds.): ''Ernst Mach als Außenseiter''. Vienna: Braumüller, 1985 (with select correspondence).
*
* John T. Blackmore, Ryoichi Itagaki and Setsuko Tanaka (eds.): ''Ernst Mach's Science''. Kanagawa: Tokai University Press, 2006.
* John T. Blackmore, Ryoichi Itagaki and Setsuko Tanaka: ''Ernst Mach's Influence Spreads''. Bethesda: Sentinel Open Press, 2009.
* John T. Blackmore, Ryoichi Itagaki and Setsuko Tanaka: ''Ernst Mach's Graz (1864–1867), where much science and philosophy were developed''. Bethesda: Sentinel Open Press, 2010.
* John T. Blackmore: ''Ernst Mach's Prague 1867–1895 as a human adventure'', Bethesda: Sentinel Open Press, 2010.
*
*
*
*
*
* {{citation, editor1-first=V. , editor1-last=Prosser , editor2-first=J., editor2-last= Folta , title=Ernst Mach and the development of Physics – Conference Papers, location= Prague, publisher= Universitas Carolina Pragensis, date= 1991
* {{citation, first=Joachim , last=Thiele, title=Wissenschaftliche Kommunikation – Die Korrespondenz Ernst Machs, lang=de, location=Kastellaun, publisher= Hain, date= 1978 (with select correspondence).
{{refend
External links
{{Commons
{{Wikiquote
{{EB1911 poster, Mach, Ernst
{{wikiquote, The Science of Mechanics
Ernst Mach bibliography of all of his papers and books from 1860 to 1916 compiled by Vienna lecturer Dr. Peter Mahr in 2016
Various Ernst Mach links compiled by Greg C Elvers
*
Klaus Hentschel
Klaus Hentschel (born 4 April 1961) is a German physicist, historian of science and Professor and head of the History of Science and Technology section in the History Department of the University of Stuttgart. He is known for his contributions in ...
: Mach, Ernst, in
''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' 15 (1987), pp. 605–609.* {{Gutenberg author , id=Mach,+Ernst , name=Ernst Mach
* {{Internet Archive author , sname=Ernst Mach
* {{Librivox author , id=10401
* {{cite SEP , url-id=ernst-mach , title=Ernst Mach , last=Pojman , first=Paul , author-link=Paul Pojman
Short biography and bibliographyin the Virtual Laboratory of the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...
Ernst Mach: ''The Analysis of Sensations'' (1897) ranslation of ''Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen'' (1886)* {{MathGenealogy , id=113010
"The critical positivism of Mach and Avenarius" entry in the ''
Britannica Online Encyclopedia''
{{Positivism
{{Authority control
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mach, Ernst
1838 births
1916 deaths
19th-century Austrian writers
19th-century Austrian philosophers
19th-century Czech philosophers
20th-century Austrian writers
20th-century Austrian philosophers
19th-century Austrian physicists
Historians of physics
Austrian atheists
Austrian people of Moravian-German descent
Austrian socialists
Ballistics experts
Charles University faculty
Empiricists
Experimental physicists
Fluid dynamicists
Historians of science
Optical physicists
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
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Scientists from Brno