Ivan Paskvić (''German: Johann Pasquich, Hungarian: János Pasquich'', 3 January 1754 – 15 December 1829) was an
Austro-Hungarian astronomer, physicist and mathematician.
Biography
Paskvić was born in
Senj
Senj (; it, Segna, la, Senia, Hungarian and german: Zengg) is a town on the upper Adriatic coast in Croatia, in the foothills of the Mala Kapela and Velebit mountains.
The symbol of the town is the Nehaj Fortress ( hr, Tvrđava Nehaj) whic ...
. He was educated in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
, from 1778 in
Graz and from 1782 in
Buda. In
Buda he was an adjunct professor of physics, professor of mathematics, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and director of
Buda Observatory. His
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
n colleague Daniel M. Kmeth accused him in several scientific journals of forging observational data of
Buda Observatory. After examining the data many prominent scientists in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
stood in Paskvić's defense, such as
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
,
Friedrich Bessel
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the sun to another star by the method ...
,
Johann Franz Encke
Johann Franz Encke (; 23 September 179126 August 1865) was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations ...
,
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers (; ; 11 October 1758 – 2 March 1840) was a German physician and astronomer.
Life and career
Olbers was born in Arbergen, Germany, today part of Bremen, and studied to be a physician at Göttingen (1777–80 ...
,
Heinrich Christian Schumacher
Prof Heinrich Christian Schumacher FRS(For) FRSE (3 September 1780 – 28 December 1850) was a German- Danish astronomer and mathematician.
Biography
Schumacher was born at Bramstedt, in Holstein, near the German/Danish border. He was educ ...
. From 1824 he worked in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
where he died.
Research and work
Paskvić dealt with astronomy, higher geodesy, mathematics, mechanics and theory of machines. His scientific work is divided into two periods. The first period deals with mechanics, higher mathematics and with its applications to theory of machines. The second period deals with astronomy and higher geodesy. He derives the formula for the length of a mathematical seconds pendulum at any place on the Earth, compares it with that of
Laplace and corrects
de Prony's formula for the length of physical seconds pendulum. He determined the flattening of the Earth by finding formula's for 1) radius of the circle that passes through a point on Earth's surface and is parallel to the equator, 2) distance of the center of this circle from the center of the Earth, 3) meridian radius curvature at any point on Earth's surface, 4) size of one meridian degree, 5) the angle between the radius of the Earth at the equator and at some other point on Earth's surface, 6) the length of the quarter meridian, 7) the length of the
meridian arc, 8) surface of Earth's zone between any two parallels.
Publications
See also
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11191 Paskvić
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Paskvic, Ivan
1754 births
1829 deaths
Croatian physicists
Croatian mathematicians
Croatian astronomers
People from Senj