Mathematician:Jakob Steiner

Mathematician

Swiss mathematician who worked extensively (and mainly) in geometry.

He made an important contribution to combinatorics with his Steiner system, a kind of block design.

Nationality

Swiss

History

• Born: 18 March 1796, Utzenstorf, Bern, Switzerland.
• Died: 1 April 1863, Bern, Switzerland.

Theorems and Definitions

• Steiner System
• Steiner Surface

• Steiner's Problem:
  • Steiner's Calculus Problem
  • Steiner Tree Problem
  • Steiner's Conic Problem

• Steiner Tree
• Steiner Chain
• Poncelet-Steiner Theorem (with Jean-Victor Poncelet)
• Parallel Axes Theorem (also known as the Huygens-Steiner Theorem, with Christiaan Huygens)
• Steiner-Lehmus Theorem (with C.L. Lehmus)
• Steiner Inellipse

Results named for Jakob Steiner can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Jakob Steiner can be found here.

Publications

• 1826: Einige geometrische Betrachtungen
• 1826: Einige Gesetze über die Theilungder Ebene und des Raumes (J. reine angew. Math. Vol. 1: pp. 349 – 364)
• 1832: Systematische Entwicklung der Abhängigkeit geometrischer Gestalten voneinander
• 1833: Die geometrischen Constructionen ausgeführt mittels der geraden Linie und eines festen Kreises
• 1848: Allgemeine Eigenschaften algebraischer Curven
• 1850: Über das größte Product der Theile oder Summanden jeder Zahl (J. reine angew. Math. Vol. 40: p. 208) (in which Steiner's Calculus Problem is presented)
• 1867: Vorlesungen über synthetische Geometrie (posthumous)

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Jakob Steiner": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Steiner, Jakob (1796-1863)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Steiner, Jakob (1796-1863)