# Mathematician:Charles Proteus Steinmetz

## Mathematician

Prussian-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College.

Fostered development of alternating current that enabled expansion of electric power industry in United States.

Formulated mathematical theories for engineers.

Explained the phenomenon of hysteresis.

## Nationality

Prussian (Hanoverian)

## History

• Born: April 9, 1865 in Breslau, Province of Silesia, Prussia
• Died: October 26, 1923 in Schenectady, New York, United States

## Notable Quotes

Mathematics is the most exact science, and its conclusions are capable of absolute proof. But this is so only because mathematics does not attempt to draw absolute conclusions. All mathematical truths are relative, conditional. ($1923$)
-- Quoted in 1937: Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics: They Say: What Say They? : Let Them Say

## Also known as

Steinmetz was born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz. He changed his name to Charles on applying to enter the US in $1889$, and adopted the middle name Proteus after a character from Homer's The Odyssey.