Walter Gröbli (23 September 1852 – 26 June 1903) was a Swiss

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 ...

Life and work

His father, Issak Gröbli, was an industrial who was invented a shuttle embroidery machine in 1863, and his old brother is credited to have introduced the invention in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Walter Gröbli was more interested in mathematics than in embroidery and he studied from 1871 to 1875 at the Polytechnicum of Zürich under

Hermann Schwarz Karl Hermann Amandus Schwarz (; 25 January 1843 – 30 November 1921) was a German mathematician, known for his work in complex analysis. Life Schwarz was born in Hermsdorf, Silesia (now Sobieszów, Poland). In 1868 he married Marie Kummer ...

and

Heinrich Martin Weber Heinrich Martin Weber (5 March 1842, Heidelberg, German Confederation, Germany – 17 May 1913, Straßburg, Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire, now Strasbourg, France) was a German mathematician. Weber's main work was in algebra, number theory, ...

. Then Gröbli studied at

university of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

and he was awarded a doctorate in 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 ...

(1877). The following six years, Gröbli was assistant of

Frobenius Frobenius is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (1849–1917), mathematician ** Frobenius algebra ** Frobenius endomorphism ** Frobenius inner product ** Frobenius norm ** Frobenius method ** Frobenius g ...

in Polytechnicum of Zürich. In 1883 he was elected mathematics professor in the ''Gymnasium'' of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Despite his mathematical talent he did not follow a research career, he was happy to be a schoolmaster. His other main passion was mountaineering. He died with other three colleagues on a mountain accident climbing the

Piz Blas Piz or PIZ may refer to: * Piz Gloria, a mountain-top restaurant in Switzerland * Piz Buin, a mountain * Piz Dolf, a mountain * Piz Segnas, a mountain * Piz Buin (brand), a suncream brand * Piz (river), a river in Russia * Point Lay LRRS Airport (IA ...

. The only work known by Gröbli was his doctoral thesis dissertation. It deals about three vortex motion, four vortex motion having an axis of symmetry and

2n

vortex motion having

n

symmetry axes. This work is a classical in vortex dynamics literature.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grobli, Walter 1852 births 1903 deaths People from the canton of St. Gallen 19th-century Swiss mathematicians ETH Zurich alumni