Ernst Mach

Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach (1838–1916)
Born	Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach 18 February 1838 Brno, Moravia, Austrian Empire
Died	19 February 1916(1916-02-19) (aged 78) Munich, German Empire
Residence	German Empire, Austrian Empire
Citizenship	Austrian
Nationality	Austrian
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	University of Graz Charles University (Prague) University of Vienna
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Doctoral advisor	A. von Ettingshausen
Doctoral students	Heinrich Gomperz Ottokar Tumlirz
Other notable students	Andrija Mohorovičić
Known for	Mach number Mach's principle Shock waves Mach waves Mach reflection effects Mach band Criticism of Isaac Newton's bucket argument Mach diamonds
Influences	Andreas von Ettingshausen Gustav Fechner Carl Ludwig
Influenced	Vienna Circle Ludwig Boltzmann Albert Einstein Wolfgang Pauli William James Wilhelm Kienzl Pierre Duhem
Signature
Notes
He was the godfather of Wolfgang Pauli. The Mach–Zehnder interferometer is named after his son Ludwig Mach, who was also a physicist. Marilyn vos Savant, the 1989 Guinness Book of Records person with the highest world IQ, is a descendant of Mach.

Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach (/ˈmɑːx/; German: [ˈɛɐ̯nst maχ]; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrianphysicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as study of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach number in his honor. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism, American pragmatism and through his criticism of Newton's theories of space and time, foreshadowing Einstein's theory of relativity.

Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was born in Brno-Chrlice (German: Chirlitz), Moravia (then in the Austrian empire, now part of Brno in the Czech Republic). His father, who had graduated from Charles University in Prague, acted as tutor to the noble Brethon family in Zlín, eastern Moravia. His grandfather, Wenzl Lanhaus, an administrator of the estate Chirlitz, was also master builder of the streets there. His activities in that field later influenced the theoretical work of Ernst Mach. Some sources give Mach's birthplace as Turas/Tuřany (now also part of Brno), the site of the Chirlitz registry-office. Peregrin Weiss baptized Ernst Mach into the Roman Catholic Church in Turas/Tuřany. Despite his Catholic background, he later became an atheist and his theory and life is compared with Buddhism.