Person: Mohr, Georg
Georg Mohr was a Danish mathematician who anticipated Mascheroni's proof that all ruler and compass constructions can be accomplished with compasses alone.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- The name sometimes also appears as Mohrenthal but certainly around this period it is quite common for names to appear with different spellings.
- David Mohrendal was a tradesman who also worked as an inspector of hospitals.
- Georg was educated by his parents and learnt enough mathematics from them to want to study further.
- Mohr was little known in his own day as a mathematician.
- In the body of the book Mohr does not state the issue until the very last paragraph ...
- Mascheroni, who is credited with proving that all Euclidean constructions can be carried out with compasses alone, did not prove this until 125 years after Mohr's book was published.
- Mohr spent part of his life in Holland and part in Denmark.
- Mohr corresponded with a number of mathematicians including Leibniz who had received a work written by Mohr on root extraction.
- It had been sent to him by Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society in London, in 1675 and Leibniz replied to Oldenburg in the following year praising Mohr's skill in geometry and analysis.
- Mohr was back in Denmark around 1681 but, having decided not to accept a post from King Christian V as supervisor of his shipbuilding, he returned to Holland in 1687.
Born 1 April 1640, Copenhagen, Denmark. Died 26 January 1697, Kieslingswalde (near Görlitz), Germany.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Denmark
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
