Hermann Minkowski

Hermann Minkowski
Born	(1864-06-22)22 June 1864 Aleksotas, Suwałki Governorate, Kingdom of Poland (now in Kaunas, Lithuania)
Died	12 January 1909(1909-01-12) (aged 44) Göttingen, German Empire
Citizenship	Russian Empire[1] or Germany
Alma mater	Albertina University of Königsberg
Known for	Geometry of numbers Minkowski content Minkowski diagram Minkowski's question-mark function Minkowski space Work on the Diophantine approximations
Spouse	Auguste Adler
Children	2
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics, physics, philosophy
Institutions	University of Göttingen and ETH Zurich
Doctoral advisor	Ferdinand von Lindemann
Doctoral students	Constantin Carathéodory Louis Kollros Dénes Kőnig
Signature

Special relativity
Principle of relativity Theory of relativity Formulations
Foundations Einstein's postulates Inertial frame of reference Speed of light Maxwell's equations Lorentz transformation
Consequences Time dilation Length contraction Relativistic mass Mass–energy equivalence Relativity of simultaneity Relativistic Doppler effect Thomas precession Relativistic disk Bell's spaceship paradox Ehrenfest paradox
Spacetime Minkowski spacetime Spacetime diagram World line Light cone
Dynamics Proper time Proper mass Four-momentum
History Precursors Galilean relativity Galilean transformation Aether theories
People Einstein Sommerfeld Michelson Morley FitzGerald Herglotz Lorentz Poincaré Minkowski Fizeau Abraham Born Planck von Laue Ehrenfest Tolman Dirac
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Hermann Minkowski (/mɪŋˈkɔːfski, -ˈkɒf-/ ming-KAWF-skee, -⁠KOF-;^[2] German: [mɪŋˈkɔfski]; 22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a German mathematician and professor at Königsberg, Zürich and Göttingen. He created and developed the geometry of numbers and used geometrical methods to solve problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of relativity.

Minkowski is perhaps best known for his foundational work describing space and time as a four-dimensional space, now known as "Minkowski spacetime", which facilitated geometric interpretations of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905).