Mathematician:Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus

Mathematician

German mathematician more famous for inventing a brand of porcelain.

Worked on techniques in algebra, and also investigated catacaustic curves.

Published what he thought was a solution to the quintic equation in $1683$, but Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz pointed out that it was fallacious.

Became a participant in the priority dispute between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz over the discovery (or invention) of calculus.

Nationality

German

History

• Born: 10 April 1651, Kieslingswalde (near Görlitz), Electorate of Saxony (now Sławnikowice, Poland)
• Died: 11 Oct 1708, Dresden, Germany

Definitions

• Tschirnhaus Transformation (also known as Tschirnhaus Substitution or Tschirnhausen Transformation)

Definitions of concepts named for Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus can be found here.

Publications

• 1683: Acta Eruditorum (in which he introduces the Tschirnhaus Transformation)
• 1686: Medicina Corporis
• 1687: Medicina Mentis
• 1695: Medicina mentis sive artis inveniendi praecepta generali (second edition of Medicina Corporis and Medicina Mentis)
• 1700: Gründliche Anleitung zu nützlichen Wissenschaften

Also known as

Some sources give his surname as Tschirnhausen.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther von (1651-1708)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walther von (1651-1708)