Theodor Meyer
Theodor Meyer (July 1, 1882 – March 8, 1972) was a
German mathematician born in Bad Bevensen, Theodor Meyer
Germany. He was a protege of Ludwig Prandtl and is
credited as one of the pioneers in the establishment of
the scientific discipline known today as compressible
flow or gas dynamics.[1][2]
Biography
As a youth, Meyer studied mathematics and physics.
He was privileged to learn from several of the great
minds in these fields, including David Hilbert, Carl
Runge, Hermann Minkowski, and Ludwig Prandtl. He
and Prandtl made a great team, for Prandtl's intuitive
Born March 1, 1882
and experimental approach to fluid mechanics has
Bad Bevensen, Lower
become legendary,[3] and Meyer complemented his
Saxony, Germany
advisor's strengths with a formidable mathematical
Died March 8, 1972 (aged 90)
talent.[1]
Nationality German
During the first decade of the 20th century, Meyer Alma mater University of Göttingen
worked under Prandtl's guidance at the Georg-August
Known for Gas dynamics
University in Göttingen, Germany on the theory of
supersonic gas flows, then a brand-new field of study Spouse Frieda Büscher
that we now call compressible flow or gas Children Hannelore Meyer
dynamics. [2][4] In particular, Meyer developed the (30 March 1924 – 25 August
theory for how gases traveling at supersonic speed 1942)
slow down abruptly through oblique shock waves, and Scientific career
how they accelerate smoothly through what we now
Doctoral Ludwig Prandtl
call a Prandtl–Meyer expansion fan.[1] Prandtl first
advisor
showed images of such flows captured by Schlieren
photography,[5] then the underlying theory appeared in
Meyer's Ph.D. dissertation,[6] hence the present terminology for the Prandtl–Meyer function and the
Prandtl–Meyer expansion fan.
Although the names of Prandtl and Meyer are now universally connected with fans of expansion or
compression waves in high-speed gas flows, their leading role in the discovery of oblique-shock waves
has been forgotten. Present-day textbooks on compressible flow and gas dynamics[2][4] simply present the
oblique shock theory without attribution. The last textbook to properly acknowledge Prandtl and Meyer
for oblique-shock theory was apparently written in 1947.[7] Nonetheless, the Ph.D. dissertation of
Theodor Meyer in 1908 is arguably one of the most influential in the entire field of fluid mechanics.[1]
Until recently, nothing was known about Theodor Meyer's life after he finished his Ph.D. research in
1908. We now know that he served as a junior officer in the German infantry during World War I.[1] He
was injured in trench warfare on the infamous Western Front, and he came into contact with Fritz Haber,
later a Nobel Prizewinner and now known as the "father of chemical warfare."
After the war, Meyer sought further employment in theoretical physics but could not find it in depression-
era postwar Germany. Ludwig Prandtl was not financially able to hire him, but Meyer did design the de
Laval nozzle for a supersonic wind tunnel that Prandtl wanted to build.[3] Prandtl sought funding from the
German military to build this advanced aerodynamic test facility, but he did not succeed.
Meyer subsequently worked as an engineer and as a high-school teacher of math and physics. By the time
of his death at almost age 90 in 1972, not even his family or his neighbors in Bad Bevensen, Germany
were aware of the formative role he had played, with Ludwig Prandtl, in the scientific discipline known
as compressible flow or gas dynamics.[1]
References
1. G. S. Settles, E. Krause, and H. Fütterer: Theodor Meyer – Lost pioneer of gas dynamics,
Progress in Aerospace Sciences 45 (6–8), pp. 203–210, 2009.
2. J. D. Anderson: Modern compressible flow: With historical perspective, New York:McGraw-
Hill, 2003.
3. J. C. Rotta: Die Aerodynamische Versuchsanstant in Göttingen: ein Werk Ludwig Prandtls,
Göttingen:Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990.
4. H. W. Liepmann and A. Roshko: Elements of gasdynamics, New York:Wiley, 1957 (reprint
available from Dover Publications).
5. L. Prandtl: Neue Untersuchung über die strömende Bewegung der Gase und Dämpfe,
Physicalische Zeitschrift 8 (1), pp. 23–30, 1907
6. T. Meyer: Über zweidimensionale Bewegungsvorgänge in einem Gas, das mit
Überschallgeschwindigkeit Strömt, Göttingen University, 1908, Ph.D. Dissertation.
7. R. Sauer: Theoretical gasdynamics, Ann Arbor, MI:J. W. Edwards, 1947.
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