Plucker, Julius

Plücker, Julius 

Born July 16, 1801, in Elberfeld; died May 22, 1868, in Bonn. German mathematician and physicist.

Pliicker was a professor at the University of Bonn from 1828 to 1834; he again became a professor there in 1836. His principal works were concerned with geometry. He generalized the concept of coordinates and introduced homogeneous and tangential coordinates. Important results in the theory of algebraic curves were also obtained by him. Plücker’s later research dealt with electrical discharges in gases and with spectroscopy. In 1862 he became the first to obtain atomic and molecular spectra of such elements as hydrogen and nitrogen.

REFERENCE

Klein, F. Lektsii o razvitii matematiki ν XIX stoletii, part 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1937. (Translated from German.)