Home > Karl Schwarzschild

He was born in Frankfurt am Main. Something of a child prodigy he had a paper on orbits published when he was only sixteen. He studied at Strasbourg and Munich, obtaining his doctorate in 1896 for a work on Jules Henri Poincaré's theories.

From 1897 on he worked as assistant at the Kufner Sternwarte in Vienna, where he developed a formula to calculate the properties of photographic material involving an exponent now know as the Schwarzschild-exponent (p in formula below).

From 1901Events January 1 World celebrates what is regarded as the start of the new century. Zero-ists' argument that new century should be celebrated in 1900 rejected worldwide). January 1 The six colonies that make up Australia are federated as under an act of t until 1909Events January 5 Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. January 16 Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. January 28 United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War. February 12 The National he was a professor at the prestigious institute at GöttingenMap of Germany showing Gottingen Coat of Arms University of Gottingen Top The old Auditorium Maximum (1862-65 Bottom New library building Gottingen is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gottingen. The Leine river runs th, where he had the opportunity to work with some significant figures including David HilbertDavid Hilbert ( January 23, 1862 February 14, 1943) was a German mathematician born in Wehlau, near Konigsberg, Prussia (now Znamensk, near Kaliningrad, Russia) who is recognized as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th cen and Hermann MinkowskiHermann Minkowski ( June 22, 1864 January 12, 1909) was a Jewish German mathematician who developed the geometrical theory of numbers and who used geometrical methods to solve difficult problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of re. He moved to a post at the Astrophysical Observatory in PotsdamThis article is about the German city of Potsdam. There is also Potsdam, New York in the United States of America. Potsdam [ˈpɔtsdam] (population 145,002 in June 30, 2004) is a city in eastern Germany, and the capital of the state of Branden in 1909Events January 5 Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. January 16 Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. January 28 United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War. February 12 The National.

At the outbreak of World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of in 1914Events January 4 77 seal hunters freeze to death on ice near Labrador January 5 Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor February 13 Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Compos he joined the German army despite being over 40 years old and served on both the western and eastern fronts, rising to the rank of lieutenant in the artillery.

While serving in Russia in 1915, he wrote two main papers, one on relativity theory and one on quantum theory. His work on relativity produced the first exact solutions to the general gravitational equations - one for non-rotating spherically symmetric bodies and one for static isotropic empty space surrounding any massive body. From the second he undertook some pioneering work on classical black holes. Two properties of black holes have been given his name - the Schwarzschild metric and the Schwarzschild radius. The papers were sent to Einstein and were later published in the Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

In astronomy he undertook measurements of variable stars, using photography. He also worked on improving optical systems, devising a perturbation equation to investigate geometrical aberrations.

He is said to have died either of an illness contracted while serving in Russia during the Great War or of a "rare metabolic disorder".