Ivan Paskvić (''German: Johann Pasquich, Hungarian: János Pasquich'', 3 January 1754 – 15 December 1829) was an astronomer, physicist and mathematician from the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

Biography

Paskvić was born in

Senj Senj is a town on the upper Adriatic coast in Croatia, in the foothills of the Mala Kapela and Velebit mountains. The symbol of the town is the Nehaj Fortress () which was completed in 1558. For a time this was the seat of the Uskoks, who were ...

. He was educated in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, from 1778 in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

and from 1782 in

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

. In

he was an adjunct professor of physics, professor of mathematics, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and director of

Observatory. His

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

n colleague Daniel M. Kmeth accused him in several scientific journals of forging observational data of

Observatory. After examining the data many prominent scientists in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

stood in Paskvić's defense, such as

Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; ; ; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist, who contributed to many fields in mathematics and science. He was director of the Göttingen Observatory and ...

Friedrich Bessel Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesy, geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the Sun to another star by th ...

Johann Franz Encke Johann Franz Encke (; 23 September 179126 August 1865) was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations ...

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers (; ; 11 October 1758 – 2 March 1840) was a German astronomer. He found a convenient method of calculating the orbit of comets, and in 1802 and 1807, discovered the second and the fourth asteroids Pallas and ...

, Heinrich Christian Schumacher. From 1824 he worked in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

where he died.

Research and work

Paskvić dealt with astronomy, higher geodesy, mathematics, mechanics and theory of machines. His scientific work is divided into two periods. The first period deals with mechanics, higher mathematics and with its applications to theory of machines. The second period deals with astronomy and higher geodesy. He derives the formula for the length of a mathematical seconds pendulum at any place on the Earth, compares it with that of

Laplace Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (; ; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French polymath, a scholar whose work has been instrumental in the fields of physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and philosophy. He summariz ...

and corrects de Prony's formula for the length of physical seconds pendulum. He determined the flattening of the Earth by finding formula's for 1) radius of the circle that passes through a point on Earth's surface and is parallel to the equator, 2) distance of the center of this circle from the center of the Earth, 3) meridian radius curvature at any point on Earth's surface, 4) size of one meridian degree, 5) the angle between the radius of the Earth at the equator and at some other point on Earth's surface, 6) the length of the quarter meridian, 7) the length of the

meridian arc In geodesy and navigation, a meridian arc is the curve (geometry), curve between two points near the Earth's surface having the same longitude. The term may refer either to a arc (geometry), segment of the meridian (geography), meridian, or to its ...

, 8) surface of Earth's zone between any two parallels.

Publications

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paskvic, Ivan 1754 births 1829 deaths Astronomers from the Austrian Empire Croatian physicists Croatian mathematicians Croatian astronomers People from Senj

Biography

Research and work

Publications

See also

Sources