Paul Rudolf Eugen Jahnke (November 30, 1861, in Berlin – October 18, 1921, in Berlin) was a German

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. Jahnke studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, where he graduated in 1886. In 1889 he received his doctorate from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg under Albert Wangerin on the integration of first-order

ordinary differential equations In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable. As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) and involves the derivatives ...

. After that, he was a teacher at secondary schools in Berlin, where he simultaneously in 1901 taught at the ''Königlich Technische Hochschule Berlin'' (now TU Berlin) and in 1905 he became a professor at the Mining Academy in Berlin, which merged in 1916 with the ''Technische Hochschule''. In 1919 he became rector of that institution. In 1900 Jahnke read a paper at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

in Paris. He was editor of the Archives of Mathematics and Physics and contributor to the Yearbook for the Progress of Mathematics. He wrote an early book on

vector calculus Vector calculus or vector analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the differentiation and integration of vector fields, primarily in three-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb^3. The term ''vector calculus'' is sometimes used as a ...

but is now known primarily for his function tables, which first appeared in 1909. This was also translated into English and was in print into the 1960s. (Professor of Electrical Engineering at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

) contributed to later editions, as did others.

Selected works

* Jahnke: ''Zur Integration von Differentialgleichungen erster Ordnung, in welchen die unabhängige Veränderliche explicite nicht vorkommt, durch eindeutige doppeltperiodische Funktionen'' (dissertation), 1889 * Jahnke
''Vorlesungen über die Vektorenrechnung – mit Anwendungen auf Geometrie, Mechanik und mathematische Physik''
(lectures on vector analysis, with applications to geometry, mechanics, and mathematical physics), Teubner 1905 * Jahnke (jointly with ): ''Funktionentafeln mit Formeln und Kurven'' (tables of functions with formulas and graphs), Teubner. 1909, 1933, 1945, 7. Auflage 1966, edited by Fritz Emde until his death in 1951 and later by Friedrich Lösch as "Tafeln höherer Funktionen". In America, published a
''Tables of Functions With Formulas and Curves''
by Eugene Jahnke and Fritz Emde, Dover June 1945

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahnke, Eugene Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin 19th-century German mathematicians 1861 births 1921 deaths 20th-century German mathematicians