August Ferdinand Möbius
Mathematician, Academic
1790 – 1868
Who was August Ferdinand Möbius?
August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.
He is best known for his discovery of the Möbius strip, a non-orientable two-dimensional surface with only one side when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space. It was independently discovered by Johann Benedict Listing around the same time. The Möbius configuration, formed by two mutually inscribed tetrahedra, is also named after him. Möbius was the first to introduce homogeneous coordinates into projective geometry.
Many mathematical concepts are named after him, including the Möbius transformations, important in projective geometry, and the Möbius transform of number theory. His interest in number theory led to the important Möbius function μ and the Möbius inversion formula. In Euclidean geometry, he systematically developed the use of signed angles and line segments as a way of simplifying and unifying results.
Möbius was born in Schulpforta, Saxony-Anhalt, and was descended on his mother's side from religious reformer Martin Luther. He studied mathematics under Carl Friedrich Gauss and Johann Pfaff. Möbius died in Leipzig in 1868 at the age of 77.
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- Born
- Nov 17, 1790
Schulpforta - Also known as
- August Ferdinand Mobius
- Nationality
- Germany
- Profession
- Education
- University of Göttingen
- University of Leipzig
- Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
- Employment
- University of Leipzig
- Lived in
- Saxony-Anhalt
- Germany
- Died
- Sep 26, 1868
Leipzig
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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