Paul Halcke (also: ''Halcken'' or ''Halke''), born 1662 in Elmshorn,CERL Thesaurus
retrieved Jan. 5, 2022 died 1731 in Buxtehude was a German mathematician, writer,

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

, and

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

maker. He was the brother of writer and

Johann Halcke and founded, in 1690, together with Heinrich Meißner, the ''Hamburgischen Kunst-Rechnungs lieb- und übenden Societät,'' today's

Hamburg Mathematical Society The Hamburg Mathematical Society (german: Mathematische Gesellschaft in Hamburg) is a learned society concerned with mathematics and located in the German city of Hamburg. It was founded in 1690 by Heinrich Meissner as the "Kunstrechnungsübende S ...

. Since about 1687 he was writer and calculator at the city school of Buxtehude. In 1694 he issued a solution's book to a collection of exercises by Heinrich Meißner, and later he published his own collection of 574 exercises from mathematics and astronomy, entitled ''Mathematischer Sinnen-Confect'' ("mathematical mind candy"),Paul Halcke, Jacob Oostwoud
Mathematisch zinnen-confect, of wiskundige uytspanningen ter beoeffeningen van het verstand ...
Te Purmerende, 1767 (scan from the Saxon State Library, State and University Library Dresden). which was translated in various languages and remained a seminal textbook for more than a century. The exercises were enriched by poems and descriptions of the solving methods. In particular, exercise 289 on page 256 consists in finding the smallest

Euler brick In mathematics, an Euler brick, named after Leonhard Euler, is a rectangular cuboid whose edges and face diagonals all have integer lengths. A primitive Euler brick is an Euler brick whose edge lengths are relatively prime. A perfect Euler brick i ...

, for which Paul Halcke is most well-known today. This cuboid has sides and face diagonals of integer lengths and {125, 244, 267}. He also edited several popular

s for the years 1705, 1707, 1715, 1716 and 1725.

References

18th-century German mathematicians 18th-century German male writers 1662 births 1731 deaths