Gustav Robert Kirchhoff :: biographies biography bio

Born 12 March 1824 in Knigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia)Died 17 Oct 1887 in Berlin, Germany Gustav Kirchhoff s generate was Friedrich Kirchhoff, a lawyer in Knigsberg. Gustavs mother was Johanna Henriette Wittke.In 1988 Gustav Kirchhoff went to the Albertus University of Knigsberg to study math when he was at the age of 18. In 1833 Frans Neuman and Jakobi set up a mathematics-physics seminar at Knigsberg. Kirchhoff attented at the seminar from 1843 to 1846. It was while he was canvas with Neumann that Kirchhoff made his first outstanding research contribution which related to electric currents. Kirchhoffs laws, which he announced in 1845. The year 1847 was an eventful one for Kirchhoff. He graduated from Knigsberg in that year and he also married Clara Richelot. They travel 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 pr ofessor 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 select 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 ber mathematische Physik (1876-94, Lectures on Mathematical Physics) and Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1882 supplement, 1891, Collected Essays). Spectrum AnalysisKirchhoff was the first to explain the dark lines in the Suns 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 discover if heated.spectral lines - a discovery that began the spectroscopic method of chemical analysis.Kirchhoff and Bunsen began by effect ively 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 objects spectrum, then, astronomers can deduce its temperature, composition and physical conditions, among other things.