MATHEMATICIAN

Karl Weierstrass

1815 - 1897

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Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (; German: Weierstraß [ˈvaɪɐʃtʁaːs]; 31 October 1815 – 19 February 1897) was a German mathematician often cited as the "father of modern analysis". Despite leaving university without a degree, he studied mathematics and trained as a school teacher, eventually teaching mathematics, physics, botany and gymnastics. He later received an honorary doctorate and became professor of mathematics in Berlin. Among many other contributions, Weierstrass formalized the definition of the continuity of a function and complex analysis, proved the intermediate value theorem and the Bolzano–Weierstrass theorem, and used the latter to study the properties of continuous functions on closed bounded intervals. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Karl Weierstrass is the 59th most popular mathematician (down from 52nd in 2019), the 283rd most popular biography from Germany (down from 258th in 2019) and the 9th most popular German Mathematician.

Karl Weierstrass is most famous for proving that every continuous function on the real line can be uniformly approximated by polynomials.

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Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, Karl Weierstrass ranks 59 out of 1,004. Before him are August Ferdinand Möbius, Josef Stefan, Sophie Germain, Friedrich Bessel, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Philolaus. After him are Sofia Kovalevskaya, Marin Mersenne, Émilie du Châtelet, Ludolph van Ceulen, Girard Desargues, and Nikolai Lobachevsky.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1815, Karl Weierstrass ranks 7. Before him are Otto von Bismarck, Ada Lovelace, John Bosco, Otto of Greece, John A. Macdonald, and George Boole. After him are Adolph Menzel, Johann Jakob Bachofen, Thomas Couture, Louis-Jules Trochu, Ildefons Cerdà, and Ľudovít Štúr. Among people deceased in 1897, Karl Weierstrass ranks 4. Before him are Johannes Brahms, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Alphonse Daudet. After him are Jiroemon Kimura, Edward Drinker Cope, Jacob Burckhardt, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī, Savitribai Phule, Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, Albert Marth, and Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Karl Weierstrass ranks 283 out of 7,253. Before him are Athanasius Kircher (1602), Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804), Wilhelm Pieck (1876), Hans-Dieter Flick (1965), Maria Sibylla Merian (1647), and Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883). After him are Ferdinand Tönnies (1855), Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1629), Joachim Gauck (1940), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880), Walther Bothe (1891), and Sepp Dietrich (1892).

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Among MATHEMATICIANS In Germany

Among mathematicians born in Germany, Karl Weierstrass ranks 9. Before him are Bernhard Riemann (1826), Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805), Gottlob Frege (1848), Emmy Noether (1882), August Ferdinand Möbius (1790), and Friedrich Bessel (1784). After him are Ludolph van Ceulen (1540), Richard Dedekind (1831), Regiomontanus (1436), Alexander Grothendieck (1928), Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (1804), and Felix Klein (1849).

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