From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christian Johann Doppler (29
November 1803 – 17 March 1853) was an Austrian mathematician and
physicist. He is most famous for what is now called the Doppler
effect, which is the apparent change in frequency and wavelength of
a
wave as perceived by an
observer moving relative to the wave's source.
Life
and work
Christian Doppler was born inSalzburg,
Austria, the son of a stone-mason. Doppler could not work in his father's
business because of his generally weak physical condition. After completing
high school Doppler studied astronomy and mathematics in Vienna and
Salzburg and started to work at thePrague
Polytechnic (now Czech
Technical University), where he was appointed professor for mathematics
and physics in 1841. (Note: At that time, the present Czech
Republic was part of the Austrian
Empire.)
Only a year later, at the age of 39, Doppler published his most notable work,
"Über
das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels" (On
the coloured light of the binary stars and some other stars of the heavens).[1] In
this work, Doppler postulated his principle (later coined the Doppler effect)
that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the
source and the observer, and he tried to use this concept for explaining the
colour of binary stars. The Doppler effect of sound was verified by Buys
Ballot in 1845. In Doppler's
time in Prague as
a professor he published over 50 articles on mathematics, physics and
astronomy. In1847 he
left Prague for the professorship of mathematics, physics, and mechanics at
the Academy
of Mines and Forests in Schemnitz (Banská
Štiavnica, Slovakia),
and in1849 he
moved to Vienna. [2]
Doppler's research in Prague was
interrupted by the revolutionary
incidents of March 1848, when
he fled to Vienna.
There he was appointed head of the Institute for Experimental Physics at the University
of Vienna in 1850. During his
time there, Doppler, along with Franz
Unger, played an influential role in the development of young
Gregor Mendel, known as the founding father of genetics,
who was a student at the
University of Vienna from 1851
to 1853.
Doppler died on 17 March 1853 at age 49 from a pulmonary
disease in Venice (also
at that time part of the Austrian Empire). His tomb is just inside the
entrance of the Venetian island cemetery of San
Michele.[3]
