Ferdinand Karl Schweikart (1780–1857) was a German
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
and amateur
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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
who developed an ''astral geometry'' before the discovery of
non-Euclidean geometry
In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean ge ...
.
Life and work
Schweikart, son of an attorney in Hesse, was educated in the school of his town. He went to the high school in
Hanau
Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...
and
Waldeck before entering in 1796 to study law in the
university of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...
, where he attended lectures of the mathematics professor J.K.F. Hauff. He was awarded a doctorate in law at the
university of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...
in 1798.
After practicing as a lawyer for a few years in Erbach, he was, from 1803 to 1807, instructor of the youngest prince of
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen. From 1809, he was university professor of jurisprudence successively at the universities of
Giessen
Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the Germany, German States of Germany, state () of Hesse, capital of both the Giessen (district), district of Giessen and the Giessen (region), administrative region of Giessen. The population is appro ...
(1809-1812),
Kharkiv
Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine. (1812-1816), Marburg (1816-1821) and
Königsberg
Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...
(1821 afterwards).
[, 1909. Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon.]
But Schweikart is best remembered for his works on mathematics: in 1807 he published
Die Theorie der Parallellinien, nebst dem Vorschlage ihrer Verbannung aus der Geometrie (The theory of parallel lines, along with the suggestions of their banishment from geometry)'. Then, in 1818 he wrote to
Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; ; ; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, Geodesy, geodesist, and physicist, who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observat ...
, through his student
Christian Ludwig Gerling
Christian Ludwig Gerling (10 July 1788 – 15 January 1864) studied under Carl Friedrich Gauss, obtaining his doctorate in 1812 for a thesis entitled: ''Methodi proiectionis orthographicae usum ad calculos parallacticos facilitandos explicavit ...
, about a new geometry, called by him as ''astral geometry'', where the sum of the angles of a triangle was less than 180º (as in
hyperbolic geometry
In mathematics, hyperbolic geometry (also called Lobachevskian geometry or János Bolyai, Bolyai–Nikolai Lobachevsky, Lobachevskian geometry) is a non-Euclidean geometry. The parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry is replaced with:
:For a ...
). He influenced the work of his nephew, the mathematician
Franz Taurinus.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweikart, Ferdinand Karl
19th-century German mathematicians
18th-century German jurists
1780 births
1857 deaths