Everything about Ernst Mach totally explained
Ernst Mach (
February 18,
1838 –
February 19,
1916) was an
Austrian physicist and
philosopher and is the namesake for the "
Mach number" (also known as Mach speed) and the optical illusion known as
Mach bands.
Biography
Ernst Mach was born in Chrlice (then part of the
Austrian empire, now part of
Brno,
Czech Republic). His grandfather was tutor to the
Brethon noble family in Chrlice; his father graduated from
Prague University and taught at
Chrlice grammar school. Some sources state that his birthplace was
Tuřany, but this was where the Chrlice registry office was situated.
Up to the age of 15 he was educated at home by his parents. He then joined a
Gymnasium in
Kroměříž and in 1855 the
University of Vienna. There he studied
mathematics,
physics and
philosophy, and received a doctorate in physics in 1860. His early work was focused on the
Doppler effect in
optics and
acoustics. In 1864 he took a job as Professor of Mathematics in
Graz, and in 1866 he was appointed as Professor of Physics. During that period Mach became interested also in the
psychophysiology of sensory perception. In 1867 he took the chair of Professor of Experimental Physics at
Charles-Ferdinand University,
Prague, where he stayed for 28 years.
In 1897 he suffered a stroke and in 1901 retired from the University and was appointed to the upper chamber of the Austrian parliament. On leaving that post in 1913 he moved to his son's home in Vaterstetten, near
Munich where he continued writing books until his death.
Physics
Most of his studies in the field of experimental physics were devoted to
interference,
diffraction,
polarization and
refraction of
light in different
media under external influences. These studies were soon followed by his important explorations in the field of
supersonic velocity. Mach's paper on this subject was published in 1877 and correctly describes the sound effects observed during the supersonic motion of a
projectile. Mach deduced and experimentally confirmed the existence of a
shock wave which has the form of a
cone with the projectile at the apex. The ratio of the speed of projectile to the
speed of sound vp/
vs is now called the
Mach number. It plays a crucial role in
aerodynamics and
hydrodynamics. He also contributed to
cosmology the hypothesis known as
Mach's principle.
Philosophy of science
Mach developed a
philosophy of science which was influential in the
19th and
20th centuries.
Mach held that scientific laws are summaries of experimental events,
constructed for the purpose of human comprehension of complex data.
Thus scientific laws have more to do with the mind than with reality as it exists apart from the mind.
Some quotations from Mach's writings will illustrate his philosophy.
These selections are taken from his essay
The Economical Nature of Physical Inquiry, excerpted by Kockelmans (citation below).
» The goal which it [physicalscience] has set itself is the
simplest and
most economical abstract expression of facts.
» When the human mind, with its limited powers, attempts to mirror in itself the rich life of the world, of which it itself is only a small part, and which it can never hope to exhaust, it has every reason for proceeding economically.
» In reality, the law always contains less than the fact itself, because it doesn't reproduce the fact as a whole but only in that aspect of it which is important for us, the rest being intentionally or from necessity omitted.
» In mentally separating a body from the changeable environment in which it moves, what we really do is to extricate a group of sensations on which our thoughts are fastened and which is of relatively greater stability than the others, from the stream of all our sensations.
» Suppose we were to attribute to nature the property of producing like effects in like circumstances; just these like circumstances we shouldn't know how to find. Nature exists once only. Our schematic mental imitation alone produces like events.
In accordance with this philosophy, Mach opposed
Ludwig Boltzmann and others who proposed an atomic theory of physics. Since atoms are too small to observe directly, and no atomic model at the time was consistent, the atomic hypothesis seemed to Mach to be unwarranted, and perhaps not sufficiently "economical".
Mach had a direct influence on the
Vienna Circle philosophers and the school of
logical positivism in general.
Albert Einstein called him the "forerunner of [the]
Theory of relativity", though Mach would later, to Einstein's disappointment, reject Einstein's theory.
Mach's positivism was also influential on many Russian
Marxists, such as
Alexander Bogdanov. In 1908,
Lenin wrote a philosophical work
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism in which he criticized the views of "Russian Machists".
Psychology
In the area of sensory perception, he's best known for an
optical illusion called the
Mach band.
In theoretical psychology Mach's position on mediating structures is credited with inspiring
B. F. Skinner's strongly inductive position which paralleled Mach's, but in the realm of psychology
Eponyms
The
Mach (crater) is named after him.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ernst Mach'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://ernst_mach.totallyexplained.com">Ernst Mach Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
