Gustav Robert Kirchhoff :: biographies biography bio

Born: 12 March 1824 in Kà ¶nigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) Died: 17 Oct 1887 in Berlin, Germany Gustav Kirchhoff 's father was Friedrich Kirchhoff, a lawyer in Kà ¶nigsberg. Gustav's mother was Johanna Henriette Wittke. In 1988 Gustav Kirchhoff went to the Albertus University of Kà ¶nigsberg to study math when he was at the age of 18. In 1833 Frans Neuman and Jakobi set up a mathematics-physics seminar at Kà ¶nigsberg. Kirchhoff attented at the seminar from 1843 to 1846. It was while he was studying with Neumann that Kirchhoff made his first outstanding research contribution which related to electrical currents. Kirchhoff's laws, which he announced in 1845. The year 1847 was an eventful one for Kirchhoff. He graduated from Kà ¶nigsberg in that year and he also married Clara Richelot. They moved to Berlin in 1847. Kirchhoff teached at the University of Berlinfrom 1848 to 1850. He left from Berlin to Breslau where he was a professor of physics. In 1851 Robert Bunsen joined the University as professor of chemistry. In 1852 Bunsen was called at the University Heidelberg and soon he arranged for Kirchhoff to teach at Heidelberg as well. Kirchhoff joined a research with Bunsen and they found a spectrum analysis. In 1881 he was elected to the Electrical Congress in Paris, as the German delegate. His failing health forced him to prematurely retire in 1886. One year later he died in Berlin on 17 October 1887. His write books; "Vorlesungen à ¼ber mathematische Physik " (1876-94, "Lectures on Mathematical Physics") and " Gesammelte Abhandlungen " (1882; supplement, 1891, "Collected Essays"). Spectrum Analysis Kirchhoff was the first to explain the dark lines in the Sun's spectrum as caused by absorption of particular wavelengths as the light passes through a gas. He found that when light passes through a gas, the gas absorbs those wavelengths that it would emit if heated. spectral lines - a discovery that began the spectroscopic method of chemical analysis. Kirchhoff and Bunsen began by effectively inventing the spectroscope, a prism-based device that separated light in its primary chromatic components, i.e., its spectrum, with which they began studying the spectral "signature" of various chemical elements in gaseous form. The spectrum of an object is the variation in the intensity of its radiation at different wavelengths. Objects with different temperatures and compositions emit different types of spectra. By observing an object's spectrum, then, astronomers can deduce its temperature, composition and physical conditions, among other things.