Carl Wolfgang Benjamin Goldschmidt

Carl Wolfgang Benjamin Goldschmidt (4 August 1807 – 15 February 1851) was a German astronomer, mathematician, and physicist of Jewish descent who was a professor of astronomy at the University of Göttingen. Carl Goldschmidt, and Karl Goldschmidt.

In 1831, Goldschmidt wrote a mathematical treatise in Latin, "Determinatio superficiei minimae rotatione curvae data duo puncta jungentis circa datum axem ortae" ("Determination of the surface-minimal rotation curve given two joined points about a given axis of origin"). The paper dealt with the problem in the calculus of variations of determining the minimal surface of revolution, the surface of revolution of the planar curve between two given points which minimizes surface area. Solutions to the problem exist which are not continuous; such discontinuous solutions are known as Goldschmidt solutions in honor of Goldschmidt's discovery of them.

Physics works In 1834, Goldschmidt co-authored, in German, the textbook Lehrbuch der analytischen Optik (Textbook of Analytical Optics) with J. C. Eduard Schmidt. In 1845, Goldschmidt published, also in German, a book on electromagnetism, Untersuchungen über die magnetische Declination in Göttingen (Studies of the Magnetic Declination in Göttingen).

Personal life Goldschmidt, who suffered from an enlargement of the heart, died in his sleep and was found on the morning of 15 February 1851.