Franz Harress (died circa 1915) was a mathematician and contemporary of

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 ...

and is best known for his experiment on the propagation of light in a rotating glass device. This experiment sparked an argument between

and Paul Harzer related to the theory of

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 ...

. Harress was a student of Professor Otto Julius Heinrich Knopf at

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

in 1912. His dissertation was "Die Geschwindigkeit des Lichtes in bewegten Körpern" ("The speed of light in moving bodies"). His work on the

Sagnac effect The Sagnac effect, also called Sagnac interference, named after French physicist Georges Sagnac, is a phenomenon encountered in interferometry that is elicited by rotation. The Sagnac effect manifests itself in a setup called a ring interferomet ...

was analyzed by

Max von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. In addition to his scientific endeavors with cont ...

in his 1920 paper "On the Experiment of F. Harress."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harress, Franz Year of birth missing 1915 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians Place of birth missing University of Jena alumni Nationality missing Mathematical physicists