Wilhelm Jordan (1842-1899)
Wilhelm Jordan was born on March 1st 1842 in Wurttemberg and he died on April 17th of 1899 in Hanover. He was a German geodesist, which is a part of applied mathematics and earth sciences. He also dealt with measurement and representation of the Earth in time and space, attaching to it the gravitational field in a three-dimensional time-varying space (plane and non-plane).
It is because of his work as an engineering assistant for two years that he found a particular interest in geodesy. After engaging the railway constructions, he became an assistant in geodesy. He loved this aspect of mathematics so much that he became Professor of geodesy and practical geometry at the Technical University of Hanover in 1881 and until his death. His passion for mathematic was so extreme that he even wrote a books on this specific subject. His best known book was his Handbuch der Vermessungskunde, which means ‘’Textbook of Geodesy’’, making three enormous volumes out of it.
Wilhelm Jordan is internationally known for his Gauss-Jordan elimination. Basically, what Jordan did was that he improved the stability of the algorithm so it could be applied to minimize the squared error in the sum of a series of ‘’surveing observations’’.
It is because of his work as an engineering assistant for two years that he found a particular interest in geodesy. After engaging the railway constructions, he became an assistant in geodesy. He loved this aspect of mathematics so much that he became Professor of geodesy and practical geometry at the Technical University of Hanover in 1881 and until his death. His passion for mathematic was so extreme that he even wrote a books on this specific subject. His best known book was his Handbuch der Vermessungskunde, which means ‘’Textbook of Geodesy’’, making three enormous volumes out of it.
Wilhelm Jordan is internationally known for his Gauss-Jordan elimination. Basically, what Jordan did was that he improved the stability of the algorithm so it could be applied to minimize the squared error in the sum of a series of ‘’surveing observations’’.
Explanation:
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Jordan_(geodesist)
http://math.fullerton.edu/mathews/n2003/gaussianjordanmod.html
http://math.fullerton.edu/mathews/n2003/gaussianjordanmod.html