Ferdinand Minding
Ernst Ferdinand Adolf Minding (Russian: Фердинанд Готлибович Миндинг; January 11 1806 [O.S. December 30] – May 13 [O.S. May 1] 1885) was a German-Russian mathematician known for his contributions to differential geometry. He continued the work of Carl Friedrich Gauss concerning differential geometry of surfaces, especially its intrinsic aspects. Minding considered questions of bending of surfaces and proved the invariance of geodesic curvature. He studied ruled surfaces, developable surfaces and surfaces of revolution and determined geodesics on the pseudosphere. Minding's results on the geometry of geodesic triangles on a surface of constant curvature (1840) anticipated Beltrami's approach to the foundations of non-Euclidean geometry (1868).
Ferdinand Minding | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 11, 1806 Kalisch, Kingdom of Prussia (present-day Kalisz, Poland) |
| Died | May 13, 1885 (aged 79) Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire |
| Citizenship | Russian |
| Alma mater | University of Halle |
| Known for | Invariance of geodesic curvature, geodesics on pseudosphere, bending of surfaces |
| Awards | Demidov Prize of St Peterburg Academy of Sciences (1861) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of Berlin, University of Dorpat |
| Thesis | De valore intergralium duplicium quam proxime inveniendo (1829) |
| Notes | |
Birth and death dates are given according to Neue Deutsche Biographie (in Julian and Gregorian calendar) | |