Carl David Tolmé Runge (; 30 August 1856 – 3 January 1927) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, and spectroscopist. He was co-developer and co-

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

of the Runge–Kutta method (German pronunciation: ), in the field of what is today known as

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods ...

Life and work

Runge spent the first few years of his life in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, where his father Julius Runge was the Danish consul. His mother was Fanny Schwartz Tolmé. The family later moved to

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

, where his father died early (in 1864). In 1880, he received his Ph.D. in mathematics at

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, where he studied under

Karl Weierstrass Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (german: link=no, Weierstraß ; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics ...

. In 1886, he became a professor at the Technische Hochschule Hannover in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. His interests included mathematics,

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter ...

geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equival ...

, and

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

. In addition to pure mathematics, he did experimental work studying

spectral line A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to ident ...

s of various elements (together with

Heinrich Kayser Heinrich Gustav Johannes Kayser ForMemRS (; 16 March 1853 – 14 October 1940) was a German physicist and spectroscopist. Biography Kayser was born at Bingen am Rhein. Kayser's early work was concerned with the characteristics of acoustic wav ...

), and was very interested in the application of this work to

astronomical spectroscopy Astronomical spectroscopy is the study of astronomy using the techniques of spectroscopy to measure the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light, ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared and radio waves that radiate from stars an ...

. In 1904, on the initiative of

Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and grou ...

he received a call to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, which he accepted. There he remained until his retirement in 1925.

Family

His daughter

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

also became a mathematician and his son

Wilhelm Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

was an early developer of radar. Another of his daughters, Nerina (Nina), married the mathematician

Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of r ...

Honors

The crater

Runge Runge may refer to: Locations *Runge, Texas, a town, United States * Runge (crater), a lunar crater Mare Smythii Other uses * Runge Newspapers, a newspaper chain in Ontario, Canada *Inspector Heinrich Runge (though it is more often spelled ...

on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him. The Schumann-Runge bands of molecular oxygen are named after him and Victor Schumann.

Works

Ueber die Krümmung, Torsion und geodätische Krümmung der auf einer Fläche gezogenen Curven
(PhD dissertation, Friese, 1880)
Praxis der Gleichungen
(G.J. Göschen, Leipzig, 1900) *
Praxis der Gleichungen, zweite, verbesserte Auflage
(W. de Gruyter, Berlin, 1921)
Analytische Geometrie der Ebene
(B.G. Teubner, Leipzig, 1908)
Graphical methods; a course of lectures delivered in Columbia university, New York, October, 1909, to January, 1910
(Columbia University Press, New York, 1912) * Graphische Methoden (Teubner, 1912) *
Graphische Methoden, dritte Auflage
(Teubner, 1928)
Vektoranalysis
(S. Hirzel, Leipzig, 1919) *
Vector Analysis
(Methuen & Co., London, 1923); translated from 1919 German original by H. Levy * Carl Runge und Hermann König
Vorlesungen über numerisches Rechnen
(Springer, Heidelberg, 1924)

Bibliography

* *

Iris Runge Iris Anna Runge (1 June 1888 – 27 January 1966) was a German applied mathematician and physicist. Life and work Iris Runge was the eldest of six children of mathematician Carl Runge. She started studying physics, mathematics, and geograph ...

: ''Carl Runge und sein wissenschaftliches Werk'', Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1949.

References

External links

*
Biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Runge, Carl 1856 births 1927 deaths University of Göttingen faculty 19th-century German mathematicians 19th-century German physicists Numerical analysts Scientists from Bremen Spectroscopists University of Hanover faculty Humboldt University of Berlin alumni 20th-century German mathematicians 20th-century German physicists