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Birth
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was born in Czechia. His father was Johann Mach and worked as a tutor to the Brethon family in Zlin. His mother was Josephine Lanhaus. The family moved to Vienna, Austria when Ernst was an infant. In 1855, Mach enrolled at the University of Vienna studying physics, philosophy and mathematics and received his doctorate in physics in 1860.
“Ernst Mach - Biography, Facts and Pictures.” Famous Scientists, 19 Nov. 2017, www.famousscientists.org/ernst-mach. -
Mach Bands
Mach published a paper, the first of a series of remarkable articles on what are now known today as Mach Bands. Mach explained that optical illusions were not tricks of the brain but instead innate features of the senses. Mach argued that perception works through perceiving the relations between stimuli. The process that drives evolution, drives perception, and even drives science.
Ernst Mach (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 3 Mar. 2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach/#GusFec. -
Inner Ear Anatomy
Mach discovered a non-acoustic function of the inner ear which helped control human balance. He experimented with pigeons and rabbits; studied the brain, skin, and muscles; and examined the relations between motion and vision.
Staley, Richard. “Ernst Mach on Bodies and Buckets.” Physics Today, vol. 42–47, no. 12, AIP Publishing, 1 Dec. 2013, https://doi.org/10.1063/pt.3.2214. -
Physics
Mach studied interference, diffraction, and polarization and refraction of light in different media under external influences. He studied supersonic velocity experiments. He correctly describes the sound effects during the supersonic motion of a projectile. The ratio of the speed of projectile to the speed of sound vp/vs is now called the Mach number, which played a crucial role in aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.
Ernst Mach - New World Encyclopedia. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ernst_Mach. -
Death
n 1867, Ernst Mach married Ludovica Marussig in Graz. They had five children, four sons and one daughter. In 1897 Mach suffered from a stroke, leaving the right side of his body paralyzed. On leaving Vienna in 1913, he moved to his son’s home in Vaterstetten, near Munich, where he continued writing and corresponding until his death.
https://youtu.be/5qJ_iKDO7rQ
“Ernst Mach - Biography, Facts and Pictures.” Famous Scientists, 19 Nov. 2017, www.famousscientists.org/ernst-mach.