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Machs Origin and Early Life
Ernst Mach was born on February 18th, 1838 to a well educated family, Mach started his education from his family, later going on to learn in University of Vienna gaining a degree in Physics. Mach maintained a notable life being Professor of Mathematics at Graz, Experimental Physics at Charles University, and later returned to Vienna as the Chair in History and Philosophy of Inductive Sciences. Through teaching passing on knowledge and experience, he would later die in 1916, leaving a legacy. -
Contribution to Psychology
Mach made for an understanding of the perception of contrasts in 1865 showing that we as humans do not actually have lateral inhibition in our senses before sending information to the brain, causing errors in judgement. What this means is "we over process at boundaries and under process where there is constancy."A popular photo that shows these "Mach Bands", is a prime example of this, where unless you put your finger over the middle of the photo, our brains process the photo as being 2 shades. -
Machs Contribution to the Philosophy of Science
Machs idea that any species has to adapt to ensure survival and to maintain survival is through memory. Species that exhibit larger memory capacities directly correlate to longer survival through Machs ideals. In 1910, Machs publishing of "The Economy of Science" states "Memory is handier than experience, and often answers the same purpose." Mach actively showed his support to the Theory of Darwinism, stating that if a species evolves, it maintains memory and understands better how to survive. -
Contribution to Physics
Mach is most commonly credited for his relation to "Mach Speed", the relation of speed in direct correlation to the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier, commonly seen in supersonic jets. Mach maintained a anti-atomism view, not believing in the existence of atoms, due to his inability to "see" atoms, arguing with the famous Max Planck, a famous German physicist, during the years of 1904-1911. Though atoms existence had been proven by Einstein, the inability to see atoms held Mach back. -
Citations
Article: Pojman, Paul. “Ernst Mach.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 3 Mar. 2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/ernst-mach/. Grey Squares: Plait, Phil. “An Optical Illusion You Will Swear Is Fake. It Isn't.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 7 Dec. 2013, slate.com/technology/2013/12/optical-illusion-shades-of-gray.html. Video: Hu, Scott P. “F-18 Super Hornet - Breaking the Sound Barrier!” YouTube, YouTube, 2 June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CekJWJFFfHY.