AKA Christian Andreas Doppler

Born: 29-Nov-1803
Birthplace: Salzburg, Austria
Died: 17-Mar-1853
Location of death: Venice, Italy
Cause of death: Tuberculosis
Remains: Buried, Cimitero di San Michele, Venice, Italy

Gender: Male
Religion: Lutheran
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist

Nationality: Austria
Executive summary: Discovered the Doppler Effect

In his 1842 paper Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne (Concerning the Colored Light of Double Stars), Austrian mathematician Christian Doppler showed that the velocity of the source relative to the position of the observer can cause perceived changes in light and sound waves. The following year Dutch meteorologist Christoph Buys Ballot (1817-1890) conducted an experiment that demonstrated the principle plainly, by having precisely-tuned musical instruments played on a train, as it passed stationary musicians who documented the notes they heard.

Now called the Doppler effect or Doppler shift, his theory laid the groundwork for sonar and radar, and for the eventual acceptance of the idea that the universe is expanding (the "big bang"). The Doppler shift in visual spectra allows scientists to measure the rate of recession or approach of celestial objects relative to the Earth. He also published work on astronomy, electricity, magnetism, and optics.

Father: Johann Evngelist Doppler (stonemason, b. 1766, d. 1823)
Mother: Therese Doppler
Brother: Johann Doppler (b. 1794, d. 1838)
Sister: Katharina Doppler Müllbauer (b. 1796, d. 1873)
Sister: Anna Doppler (b. 1800, d. 1886)
Sister: Theresia Doppler (b. 1801)
Wife: Mathilde Sturm Doppler (m. 1836; three sons, two daughters)

    High School: Salzburg High School, Salzburg, Austria (1822)
    University: Vienna Polytechnic Institute (1829)
    Scholar: Vienna Polytechnic Institute (1829-32)
    Teacher: Technical Secondary School, Prague (1835-38)
    Teacher: Mathematics, Czech Technical University in Prague (1836-41)
    Professor: Mathematics, Czech Technical University in Prague (1841-44)
    Professor: Mathematics, Czech Technical University in Prague (1846-48)
    Professor: Math and Physics, Academy of Mines and Forests, Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia (1848-50)
    Professor: Physics, University of Vienna (1850-)
    Administrator: Institute of Physics, University of Vienna (1850-52)

    Royal Bohemian Society 1840
    Vienna Academy of Sciences 1848
    Lunar Crater Doppler (12.6° S 159.6° W, 110 km. diameter)
    Asteroid Namesake 3905 Doppler
    Austrian Ancestry
    Czech Ancestry

Author of books:
Arithmetic and Algebra (1843, textbook)
Essays by Christian Doppler (1907, papers; posthumous)

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