Object Details
- L. Brill
- Description
- Students at the technical high school in Munich, working under the direction of Alexander Brill, developed a series of wire models of minimal surfaces that was first published by Ludwig Brill in 1885. A minimal surface is the surface of smallest area of all the surfaces bounded by a closed curve in space. Its mean curvature is zero. Minimal surfaces are often represented by soap films, as was the intention with this model. This, the final model of the series, is in the shape of two rectangles intersecting at a right angle, with a handle extending from one point of intersection. It is designed to illustrate one of the surfaces proposed by the German mathematician Heinrich Scherk (1798-1885) in a paper of 1835.
- This example was exhibited at the Columbian Expositoin, a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893.
- References:
- L. Brill, Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . ., Darmstadt: L. Brill,1892, p. 21, 85.
- G. Fischer, Mathematical Models: Commentary, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, pp. 41-43.
- Scherk, H.F., “Bemerkungen über die kleinste Fläche innerhalb gegebener Grenzen,” Journal fuer die reine und angewandte Mathematik, 13, 1835, pp. 185-208. This article is mentioned in the Brill catalog.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Wesleyan University
- 1892
- ID Number
- 1985.0112.116
- catalog number
- 1985.0112.116
- accession number
- 1985.0112
- Object Name
- Geometric Model
- geometric model
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 14 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm; 5 1/2 in x 3 15/16 in x 3 15/16 in
- place made
- Germany: Hesse, Darmstadt
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_693992
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-1069-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
