Mathematician

Created and developed the field of geometry of numbers .

Nationality

German, of Polish and Jewish descent.

History

• Born: 22 June 1864, Alexotas, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania)
• Died: 12 Jan 1909, Gottingen, Germany

Theorems and Definitions

• Minkowski Addition
• Minkowski Diagram
• Minkowski Functional
• Minkowski Metric
• Minkowski Spacetime
• Minkowski Sum

• Minkowski-Bouligand Dimension (with Georges Louis Bouligand )

• Minkowski's Inequality
• Minkowski's Question Mark Function
• Minkowski's Theorem (Geometry of Numbers)
• Separating Axis Theorem

• Brunn-Minkowski Theorem (with Karl Hermann Brunn )
• Hasse-Minkowski Theorem (with Helmut Hasse )
• Minkowski-Steiner Formula (with Jakob Steiner )
• Smith-Minkowski-Siegel Mass Formula (with Henry John Stephen Smith and Carl Ludwig Siegel )

Results named for Hermann Minkowski can be found here .

Definitions of concepts named for Hermann Minkowski can be found here .

Publications

• 1896: Geometrie der Zahlen
• 1907/1915: Das Relativitatsprinzip
• 1908: Die Grundgleichungen fur die elektromagnetischen Vorgange in bewegten Korpern
• 1909: Raum und Zeit
• 1967: Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Complete Discourses)

Notable Quotes

Integral numbers are the fountainhead of all mathematics.

-- Quoted by David M. Burton as an epigraph to Chapter $2$ of Elementary Number Theory, revised ed. ($1980$)

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson : "Hermann Minkowski" : MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1980:  David M. Burton : Elementary Number Theory  (revised ed.)  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Chapter $2$: Divisibility Theory in the Integers
• 1989:  Ephraim J. Borowski  and Jonathan M. Borwein : Dictionary of Mathematics  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Minkowski function or gauge function
• 1998:  David Nelson : The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics  (2nd ed.)  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Minkowski, Hermann  (1864-1909)
• 2008:  David Nelson : The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics  (4th ed.)  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Minkowski, Hermann  (1864-1909)
• 2014:  Christopher Clapham  and James Nicholson : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics  (5th ed.)  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Minkowski, Hermann  (1864-1909)
• 2021:  Richard Earl  and James Nicholson : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics  (6th ed.)  ... (previous)  ... (next) : Minkowski, Hermann  (1864-1909)