Johann Philipp Gustav von Jolly (26 September 1809 – 24 December 1884) was a German
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
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
.
Born in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
as the son of merchant Louis Jolly and Marie Eleonore Jolly, he studied science in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and Berlin. After his studies, he was appointed professor of mathematics in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
in 1839 and in physics in 1846. He moved to
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 ...
in 1854 where he took the position once held by
Georg Simon Ohm
Georg Simon Ohm (, ; 16 March 1789 – 6 July 1854) was a German physicist and mathematician. As a school teacher, Ohm began his research with the new electrochemical cell, invented by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta. Using equipment of his ...
. In 1854 he was knighted (and henceforth referred to as von Jolly).
Jolly was first and foremost an experimental physicist. He measured the
acceleration due to gravity with precision weights and also worked on
osmosis
Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region of ...
.
One of his students at the
University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...
was
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 ...
, whom he advised in 1878 not to go into physics,
saying, "in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes." Planck replied that he didn't wish to discover new things, only to understand the known fundamentals of the field. Nevertheless, Planck's work opened up the field of
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...
.
Jolly died in Munich.
Selected works
* ''Anleitung zur Differential- und Integralrechnung'', 1846 – Manual of
differential and
integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to Function (mathematics), functions in a way that describes Displacement (geometry), displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding ...
.
* ''Die principien der mechanik'', 1852 – Principles of mechanics.
* ''Die Anwendung der Waage auf Probleme der Gravitation'', 1878 – Application of the scale to problems of
gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stron ...
.
See also
*
Jolly balance
The Jolly balance is an instrument for determining specific gravities. Invented by the German physicist Philipp von Jolly in 1864, it consists of a spring fastened at the top to a movable arm. At the lower end, the spring is provided with two sma ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jolly, Philipp von
19th-century German physicists
19th-century German mathematicians
Science teachers
Bavarian nobility
Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Academic staff of Heidelberg University
1809 births
1884 deaths
Scientists from Mannheim
People from the Grand Duchy of Baden
Heidelberg University alumni
University of Vienna alumni
Humboldt University of Berlin alumni