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Birth and Early Career
Ernst Mach was an Austrian philosopher and physicist born February 18, 1838, in what is now known as the Czech Republic. Mach was Homeschooled up to the age of 14, where he then briefly attended a high school before entering the University of Vienna at the age of 17 where he received his doctorate in physics. During his tenure as a mathematics professor at the University of Graz in the 1860s, he discovered a physiological phenomenon that has come to be called Mach’s bands. -
Physics
Mach’s bands can be explained as the tendency of the human eye to see bright or dark bands near the boundaries between areas of sharply differing illumination. Mach took his ideas and research and decided to pursue them even further, starting with becoming a professor of experimental science for the University of Prague in 1867 giving way to his studies in kinetic sensation. Mach's main contribution to physics involved his description and photographs of both spark and ballistic Shock Waves. -
Mach Numbers
In 1887 he established the principles of supersonics and the Mach number, the ratio of the velocity of an object to the velocity of sound. -
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Discoveries and Inventions
The Schlieren photos Mach constructed with assistance from his son Ludwig was able to undergo major improvements with the invention of an interferometer which paved the way for much clearer and concise photos. Mach has also made many more contributions to psychology and physiology including his anticipation of gestalt phenomena and especially his discovery of a non-acoustic function of the inner ear which helps control human balance. Mach also proposed a principle, known as the 'Mach Principle.' -
Mach Principle and later life
Mach also proposed the physical principle, known as Mach’s principle, that inertia results from a relationship of that object with all the rest of the matter in the universe, this was cited by Einstein as one of the principles that paved the way to his theory of relativity. Mach returned to the University of Vienna as a professor of inductive philosophy in 1895, but he suffered a stroke two years later and retired from active research in 1901 when he was appointed to the Austrian parliament. -
Death - Conclusion
Ernst Mach Died on 19 February 1916. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlaGxYjnoPY References: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Ernst Mach.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 15 Feb. 2020. Web. 25 Apr. 2020.
