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Early Life
Ernst Mach was born in Moravia, which was part of the Austrian Empire, now Brno-Chrlice, Czech Republic. He was raised at his family's farm and home-schooled until he was 14 by his father who was a high school teacher. He showed a keen interest in physics and mathematics early on. -
University
At the age of 17, Mach enrolled in the University of Vienna where he continued his studies in physics and graduated with his Ph.D. He then began to teach physics and mechanics as a professor of mathematics at the University of Graz. During this time, he became very interested in philosophy, psychology, and physiology of sensation. Thereafter, he moved to the Czech Republic and became a professor in experimental physics at the Charles University of Prague until 1985. -
Early Discovery
During his career as a professor in Prague, he went through studies on kinesthetic sensation, a feeling related to movement and acceleration. Thereafter, he developed optical and photographic techniques for measuring sound waves and wave propagation. Then, he established the principle of the Mach number, which is the ratio of the velocity of an object to the velocity of sound.
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Mach's Principle
Mach's principle was established which deals with the physical origin of inertia. Although his concept was never written by Mach, his close colleague Philipp Frank created a verbal graphic form. This principle explains the phenomenon of idleenss by assuming that all masses in the universe are somehow connected. Internal objects are affected by the cosmic motion and distribution of matter. Einstein mentioned that this attributed to his theory of relativity. -
Sensations
In his book, Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations, he conceptualized that all knowledge is acquired from sensation. This led to the phenomena under scientific investigation that can only be understood in terms of experience, "sensations". This was a stepping stone to natural science's that there is no position that is admissible unless it is objectively verifiable.