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Born
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was born to father Johann Mach who was tutor to the noble Brethon family in Zlin and mother Josephine Lanhaus. He was born in Chirlitz, now part of the city Brno in the Czech Republic. -
Education
In 1855, Mach enrolled as a student at the University of Vienna studying physics, philosophy and mathematics. He received his doctorate in physics in 1860 with his thesis “On electrical charge and induction”. -
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Professor Mach
He became a professor of mathematics at the University of Graz in Austria. Two years later became their professor of physics. At Charles University in Prague, Mach was appointed chair of Experimental Physics in 1867. For the following 28 years, he held this position while producing more than 100 scientific papers. Throughout his career, he did numerous types of research, including studies on wave motion, stereoscopy, auditory perception, and retinal stimuli. -
Mach Bands
Mach bands are the illusory dark and bright bars seen at the foot and knee of a luminance trapezoid. First demonstrated by Ernst Mach in the latter part of the 19th century, Mach bands are a test bed not only for models of brightness illusions but of spatial vision in general. -
Marriage and Children.
Ernst Mach married Ludovica Marussig in Graz. They had five children, four sons and one daughter. -
Mach's principle.
Mach's Principle is taken as a criterion for selecting cosmological solutions of the Einstein field equations, in which, in a well-defined manner, the metric arises from material sources alone. In such model universes inertial forces are due to the gravitational interaction of matter, and there is a relativity of accelerated motion. This was never written down by Mach. However it was given in verbal graphic form, attributed by Philipp Frank to Mach himself. -
Left Eye
This unique self-portrait, also known as "view from the left eye", is the creation of Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number (which relates an object's speed to the speed of sound) and the study of shock waves -
The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of Its Development
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Popular Scientific Lectures
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The Analysis of Sensations
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Stroke
Mach suffered from a stroke, leaving the right side of his body paralyzed. -
Retirement & Parliament
He retired from the University of Vienna and was appointed to the upper chamber of the Austrian parliament -
Autobiography
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Death