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Hermann Minkowski (22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a germanised descendant of Polish-Jews, mathematician, 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 work in relativity, in which he showed in 1907 that his former student Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905), could be understood geometrically as a theory of four-dimensional space–time, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime". ==Personal life and family== Hermann Minkowski was born in Aleksota, a village in the Augustów Governorate, the then part of the Kingdom of Poland (now incorporated into the city of Kaunas, Lithuania) to Lewin Boruch Minkowski, a merchant who subsidized the building of The Choral synagogue in Kovno,〔(А. И. Хаеш «Коробочное делопроизводство как источник сведений о жизни еврейских обществ и их персональном составе» ): 1873 г. «...купец Левин Минковский подарил молитвенному обществу при Ковенском казённом еврейском училище начатую им... постройкой молитвенную школу вместе с плацем, с тем, чтобы общество это озаботилась окончанием таковой постройки. Общество, располагая средствами добровольных пожертвований, возвело уже это здание под крышу, но затем средства сии истощились...»〕〔(Kaunas: Dates and Facts (1872) )〕〔(Box-Tax Paperwork Records ): ''Kovno. In 1873 the merchant kupez, Levin Minkovsky, gave (as a gift) to the prayer association of the Kovno state Jewish school a lot with an ongoing construction of a prayer school that (the construction) he had started so that the association would take care of completing the construction. The association, having some funds from voluntary contributions, had built the structure up to the roof, but then, ran out of money''.〕 and Rachel Taubmann, both of Jewish descent.〔()〕 Hermann was a younger brother of the medical researcher, Oskar (born 1858).〔(Oskar Minkowski (1858–1931) ). The Jewish genealogy site JewishGen.org (''Lithuania'' database, registration required) contains the birth record in the Kovno rabbinical books of Hermann's younger brother Tuvia in 1868 to Boruch Yakovlevich Minkovsky and his wife Rakhil Isaakovna Taubman.〕 In different sources Minkowski's nationality is variously given as German,〔; 〕 Polish,〔 N. Katherine Hayles, ''The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century'', Cornell University Press, 1986, p. 46. K. J. Falconer, ''Fractals: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 119. Adrian Bardon, ''A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time'', Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 68. 〕 Lithuanian or Lithuanian-German, or Russian. To escape persecution in Russia the family moved to Königsberg in 1872,〔(Oskar Minkowski (1858–1931), an outstanding master of diabetes research )〕 where the father became involved in rag export and later in manufacture of mechanical clockwork tin toys (he operated his firm ''Lewin Minkowski & Son'' with his eldest son Max).〔(Report of the Federal Security Agency (p. 183) ); (Tyra lithographed tin toy dog ); (Rudolph Leo Bernhard Minkowski: A Biographical Memoir )〕 Minkowski studied in Königsberg and taught in Bonn (1887–1894), Königsberg (1894–1896) and Zürich (1896–1902), and finally in Göttingen from 1902 until his premature death in 1909. He married Auguste Adler in 1897 with whom he had two daughters; the electrical engineer and inventor Reinhold Rudenberg was his son-in-law. Minkowski died suddenly of appendicitis in Göttingen on 12 January 1909. David Hilbert's obituary of Minkowski illustrates the deep friendship between the two mathematicians (translated): :Since my student years Minkowski was my best, most dependable friend who supported me with all the depth and loyalty that was so characteristic of him. Our science, which we loved above all else, brought us together; it seemed to us a garden full of flowers. In it, we enjoyed looking for hidden pathways and discovered many a new perspective that appealed to our sense of beauty, and when one of us showed it to the other and we marveled over it together, our joy was complete. He was for me a rare gift from heaven and I must be grateful to have possessed that gift for so long. Now death has suddenly torn him from our midst. However, what death cannot take away is his noble image in our hearts and the knowledge that his spirit continues to be active in us. The asteroid 12493 Minkowski and M-matrices are named in Minkowski's honor. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hermann Minkowski」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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