Karl Heinrich Gräffe (7 November 1799 – 2 December 1873) was a German

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 was professor at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

Life and work

Gräffe's father migrated to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, leaving the family business of jewelry in his hands. Even so, Gräffe succeeded, studying at night, entering the '' Carolineum'' of Brunswick in 1821. From 1823, he studied at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

with professors

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 ...

and Thibaut, doctorate in 1825. In 1828 he was appointed professor of the Zurich Institute of Technology and, as of 1833, associate professor at the

from the date of its creation. Simultaneously, also he was professor of the ''Obere Industrieschule''. Gräffe is known for having been the first to enunciate a method to approximate the roots of any polynomial, a method known today as the Dandelin-Gräffe method.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graffe, Karl Heinrich 1799 births 1873 deaths 19th-century German mathematicians Scientists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick TU Braunschweig alumni University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Zurich Immigrants to Switzerland