|
Johann Jakob Balmer (May 1 1825 – March 12 1898) was a Swiss mathematician.
He was born in Lausen, Switzerland.
Despite being a mathematician, he is not remembered for any work in that field; rather, his major contribution (made at the age of sixty) was an empirical formula for the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom. A full explanation of why the formula worked had to wait until the work of Niels Bohr.
Balmer lines and Balmer series are named after him.
A crater on the Moon is named after him.
External links
- Biography (http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Balmer.html)
|
