Martin Ohm


Martin Ohm was a German mathematician and a younger brother of physicist Georg Ohm.

Biography

He earned his doctorate in 1811 at Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg where his advisor was Karl Christian von Langsdorf. In 1817, he was appointed professor of mathematics and physics in the gymnasium at Thorn. In 1821 he moved to Berlin, and in 1839 became a full professor in the University of Berlin. He delivered courses of lectures at the academy of architecture from 1824 to 1831, and at the schools of artillery and engineering from 1833 to 1852; and he also taught in the military school from 1826 to 1849.

Work

Ohm was the first to fully develop the theory of the exponential ab when both a and b are complex numbers in 1823.
The 1835 second edition of Ohm's textbook, Die reine Elementar Mathematik was the first time that Euclid's 'extreme and mean ratio' was given the name of the "golden section". It was via sources relying on Ohm that the psychologist Adolf Zeisling adopted and popularised the term.

Students

Ohm's students included Friedrich August, Friedrich Bachmann, Elwin Bruno Christoffel, Paul Bachmann, Joseph Brutkowski, Heinrich Eduard Heine, Rudolf Lipschitz, Leo Pochhammer, Friedrich Prym, Wilhelm Wagner, Hermann Waldaestel, Wilhelm Wernicke, Elena Gerz, Valentien Gerz, and Johanna Gerz.

Selected publications