Person: Taurinus, Franz Adolph
Franz Taurinus was a German mathematician best known for his work on non-Euclidean geometry.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- At first Taurinus tried to prove that Euclidean geometry was the only geometry but, in 1826, he accepted the lack of contradiction in other geometries.
- In this last mentioned publication Taurinus accepts that a third system of geometry exists in which the sum of the angles of a triangle is less than 180q .
- Taurinus came up with the important idea that elliptic geometry could be realised on the surface of a sphere, an idea taken up by Riemann.
- He also realised that there were an infinite number of non-euclidean geometries and this, Taurinus claimed, was highly significant.
Born 15 November 1794, Bad König, German. Died 13 February 1874, Cologne, Germany.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Germany
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
-
- 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
