Georg Mohr facts for kids
Jørgen Mohr (born April 1, 1640 – died January 26, 1697) was a Danish mathematician. He is famous for being the first person to prove a special idea in geometry. This idea, now called the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, says that anything you can draw using a compass and straightedge (a ruler without marks) can also be drawn using only a compass. Imagine drawing complex shapes with just one tool!
Contents
Life of Jørgen Mohr
Early Life and Studies
Jørgen Mohr was born in Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. His father was a tradesman named David Mohrendal. In 1662, Jørgen traveled to the Netherlands to study mathematics. There, he learned from a very famous scientist named Christiaan Huygens.
His Important Books
In 1672, Mohr published his first book, Euclides Danicus. It came out in both Copenhagen and Amsterdam, in Danish and Dutch. This book was very important because it proved the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem. He proved it 125 years before another mathematician, Lorenzo Mascheroni, found it again. For a long time, Mohr's book was not well-known. It was only rediscovered in 1928.
Mohr also served in the Franco-Dutch War from 1672 to 1673. During this time, he was captured by the French army. By 1673, he had published his second book, Compendium Euclidis Curiosi. He may have written a third book too, but its exact title is not clear.
Friendships and Later Years
While he was in the Netherlands, Jørgen Mohr became good friends with another mathematician, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. Together, they visited other famous thinkers like Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in France and John Collins in England.
Mohr returned to Denmark in 1681. He had hoped to get a job from the king, Christian V, because he had dedicated his book Euclides Danicus to him. However, he was only offered a job as a shipyard supervisor, which he did not accept.
In 1687, he married Elizabeth von der Linde in Copenhagen. Soon after, they moved back to Holland. Their son, Peter Georg Mohrenthal, later became a bookseller in Dresden. In 1695, Mohr started working with his friend Tschirnhaus. He spent his last few years living as a guest in Tschirnhaus's house. Jørgen Mohr passed away in 1697 in Kieslingswalde, near Görlitz, Germany.
His Legacy
Today, a math competition in Denmark is named after Jørgen Mohr. It is called the Georg Mohr competition. This competition helps choose students to represent Denmark in the International Mathematical Olympiad, a big math contest for students from all over the world.
