fbpx
Wikipedia

Theodore von Kármán

January 01, 1970

"Von Kármán" redirects here. For other uses, see Von Kármán (disambiguation).
The native form of this personal name is Kármán Tódor. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Theodore von Kármán (Hungarian: (szőllőskislaki) Kármán Tódor [(søːløːʃkiʃlɒki) ˈkaːrmaːn ˈtoːdor], born Tivadar Mihály Kármán, 11 May 1881 – 6 May 1963), was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic and hypersonic airflow. The human-defined threshold of outer space is named the "Kármán line" in recognition of his work. Kármán is regarded as an outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century.[3][4][5]

Theodore von Kármán
Von Kármán in 1957
Born
Tivadar Mihály Kármán

(1881-05-11)May 11, 1881
Budapest, Austria-Hungary
DiedMay 6, 1963(1963-05-06) (aged 81)
Aachen, West Germany
Resting placeHollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood, California U.S.
NationalityHungarian
Citizenship
  • Hungary
  • United States
Alma mater
Known for
See list
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsAerospace Engineering
Institutions
Thesis Investigations on buckling strength  (1908)
Doctoral advisorLudwig Prandtl[2]
Doctoral students
[2]

Early life edit

Theodore von Kármán was born into a Jewish family in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, as Kármán Tódor, the son of Helene (Konn or Kohn, Hungarian: Kohn Ilka) and Mór Kármán [eo].[1] Among his ancestors were Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, who was said to be the creator of the Golem of Prague, and Rabbi Moses ben Menachem Mendel Kunitz [hu; he], who wrote about Zohar.[1] His father, Mór, was a well-known educator, who reformed the Hungarian school system and founded Minta Gymnasium in Budapest. He became an influential figure and became a commissioner of the Ministry of Education,[6] and was responsible for "planning an education of a young archduke, the Emperor's cousin". In 1907 Mór Karman was ennobled, Theodore later described it:[7]

To receive a predicate of nobility, my father had to be landed. Fortunately he owned a small vineyard near Budapest, so the Emperor bestowed upon him the predicate "von Szőllőskislaki" (small grape). I have shortened it to von, for even to me, a Hungarian, the full title is almost unpronounceable.[7]

Theodore had three brothers (among them Elemér Kármán [eo]) and one sister, Josephine. At age six, he could "perform large mental calculations",[8] for example multiplication of six-digit numbers.[7] Father discouraged Theodore's mathematical education, he was afraid that his son would be a child prodigy and a freak.[8] He was tutored by his father and his father's former student; later he entered the Minta Gymnasium in Budapest. He won Eötvös Prize "for the best student in mathematics and science in the whole of Hungary" in his last year at Minta.[8][a]

He studied engineering at the city's Royal Joseph Technical University (Budapest University of Technology and Economics). He graduated in 1902 with a degree in mechanical engineering, his thesis was "The motion of a heavy rod supported on its rounded end by a horizontal plane". He then served a year as an artillery cadet in the Austro-Hungarian army.[8] In 1903-1906 he worked as an assistant at the Royal Joseph Technical University. In 1906 he moved to the German Empire and joined Ludwig Prandtl at the University of Göttingen, where he received his doctorate in 1908, for his research on "mathematical models for the buckling of large structures".[8] He taught at Göttingen for four years. In 1913 he accepted a position as director of the Aeronautical Institute at RWTH Aachen University, a leading German university. His time at RWTH Aachen was interrupted by service in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1915 to 1918, during the World War I, when he designed the Petróczy-Kármán-Žurovec, an early helicopter.[8]

After the war, in 1919, he returned to Aachen with his mother and sister Josephine. Some of his students took an interest in gliding and saw the competitions of the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft as an opportunity to advance in aeronautics. Kármán engaged Wolfgang Klemperer to design a competitive glider.[10]

Josephine encouraged her brother Theodore to expand his science beyond national boundaries. They organized the first international conference in mechanics held in September 1922 in Innsbruck. Subsequent conferences were organized as the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.[11]

In 1926, Karman was first invited to the USA by the California Institute of Technology to build a wind tunnel.[12][8] In 1930 he was invited for a position of a full-time director of the Aeronautical Laboratory at California Institute of Technology; his mother and sister, Josephine, also moved to California.[8]

Emigration and JPL edit

 
1931 drawing of Theodore von Kármán
 
Von Kármán (center) during his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1940

Apprehensive about developments in Europe regarding Nazism, in 1930 Kármán accepted the directorship of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT).[12] The directorship included provision for a research assistant, and he selected Frank Wattendorf, an American who had been studying for three years in Aachen.[13]

Another student Ernest Edwin Sechler took up the problem of making reliable airframes for aircraft, and with Kármán's support, developed an understanding of aeroelasticity.

In 1936, Kármán engaged the legal services of Andrew G. Haley to form the Aerojet Corporation, with his graduate student Frank Malina and their experimental rocketry collaborators Jack Parsons and Edward Forman to manufacture JATO rocket motors. Kármán later became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

In 1940, Kármán was selected by John M. Carmody, Administrator of the Federal Works Agency to be on the Board of Engineers tasked with investigating the November 7, 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge outside Tacoma, Washington. His expertise was instrumental in discovering the effect of aerodynamic forces on the bridge, causing its unusual "galloping" behavior and eventual collapse. Along with Civil Engineers Othmar Amman and Glenn B. Woodruff, he published the report "The Failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge"[14] on March 28, 1941.

German activity during World War II increased US military interest in rocket research. In early 1943, the Experimental Engineering Division of the United States Army Air Forces Material Command forwarded to Kármán reports from British intelligence sources describing German rockets capable of travelling more than 100 miles (160 km). In a letter dated 2 August 1943 Kármán provided the Army with his analysis of and comments on the German program.[15]

In 1944 he and others affiliated with GALCIT founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is now a federally funded research and development center managed and operated by Caltech under a contract from NASA. In 1946 he became the first chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group which studied aeronautical technologies for the United States Army Air Forces. He also helped found AGARD, the NATO aerodynamics research oversight group (1951), the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (1956), the International Academy of Astronautics (1960), and the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Sint-Genesius-Rode, south of Brussels (1956).

He eventually became an important figure in supersonic motion, noting in a seminal paper that aeronautical engineers were "pounding hard on the closed door leading into the field of supersonic motion."[16]

Last years edit

In June 1944, von Kármán underwent surgery for intestinal cancer in New York City. The surgery caused two hernias, and Kármán's recovery was slow. Early in September, while still in New York, he met US Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. Arnold on a runway at LaGuardia Airport, and Arnold then proposed that Kármán should move to Washington, D.C. to lead the Scientific Advisory Group and become a long-range planning consultant to the military. Kármán returned to Pasadena around mid-September, was appointed to the SAG position on October 23, 1944, and left Caltech in December 1944.[17]

At the age of 81 Kármán was the recipient of the first National Medal of Science, bestowed in a White House ceremony by President John F. Kennedy. He was recognized, "For his leadership in the science and engineering basic to aeronautics; for his effective teaching and related contributions in many fields of mechanics, for his distinguished counsel to the Armed Services, and for his promoting international cooperation in science and engineering."[18]

Kármán never married. He died on a trip to Aachen, West Germany, in 1963, five days short of his 82nd birthday,[19] and his body was returned to the United States to be entombed in the Beth Olam Mausoleum at what is now the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[20] He has sometimes been described as one of The Martians.[21]

Kármán's fame was in the use of mathematical tools to study fluid flow,[22] and the interpretation of those results to guide practical designs. He was instrumental in recognizing the importance of swept-back wings ubiquitous in modern jet aircraft.

Selected contributions edit

 
Theodore von Kármán, left, is joined by Air Force and NASA officials while inspecting two of the models used in the high velocity, high altitude wind tunnels at Arnold Air Force Base, 1959. The missiles are Agard-B and Atlas Series B.

Specific contributions include theories of non-elastic buckling, unsteady wakes in circum-cylinder flow, stability of laminar flow, turbulence, airfoils in steady and unsteady flow, boundary layers, and supersonic aerodynamics. He made additional contributions in other fields, including elasticity, vibration, heat transfer, and crystallography. His name also appears in a number of concepts, for example:

Selected writings edit

Main article: Theodore von Kármán bibliography

Books edit

  • von Kármán, Theodore; Burgers, J. M. (1924). General Aerodynamic Theory. 2 vols., Julius Springer.
  • von Kármán, Theodore; Biot, M. A. (1940). Mathematical Methods in Engineering; An introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Engineering Problems. McGraw-Hill. pp. 505. ASIN B0006AOTLK.
  • von Kármán, Theodore; Biot, M. A. (2004). Aerodynamics: Selected Topics in the Light of Their Historical Development. Dover Books on Aeronautical Engineering. Dover Publications. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-486-43485-8.
  • von Kármán, Theodore (1956). Collected Works of Dr. T. von Kármán (1902–1951). 4 vols., Butterworth Scientific Publications.
  • von Kármán, Theodore (1961). From Low-Speed Aerodynamics to Astronautics. Pergamon Press. ASIN B000H4OVPO.
  • von Kármán, Theodore; Edson, L. (1967). The Wind and Beyond—T. von Kármán Pioneer in Aviation and Pathfinder in Space. Little Brown. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-316-90753-8.

Autobiography edit

Four years after Kármán died his autobiography The Wind and Beyond was published by Lee Edson with Little, Brown and Company. Seven major academic journals then followed with book reviews by noted authors: As the book was non-technical, written for the general reader, Thomas P. Hughes[23] cited that as problematic given the technical context of Kármán's work. Hughes conceded that Kármán "exhibited a genius for finding the simplifying assumptions that made possible the mathematical analysis." While acknowledging Kármán's gifts as an applied mathematician and teacher, Stanley Corrsin points out that the autobiography is "marriage between a man and his ego." In the later part of his life, Kármán was a "planner of global symposia and societies" and a "consultant to the upper echelons of the Pentagon corps."[24]

On creativity, Kármán wrote "the finest creative thought comes not out of organized teams but out of the quiet of one's own world."[10]: 307  In his review[25] I. B. Holley noted "penetrating insights into the creative process, its ingredients, nurture and exploitation." According to Holley, Kármán was given to "convivial drinking and the company of beautiful women."

An enthusiastic review by J. Kestin[26] advised readers to buy and study the book, and prize it as a reference. On the other hand, Charles Süsskind[27] faults Kármán for his contempt for the conventional (gaminarie). Süsskind expected the book to show some reaction to Wernher von Braun's coming to America, and some clarification of the Hsue-shen Tsien affair, rather than "lapses into generalities". Süsskind also tags Kármán as a militarist: a "forthright engineer who is quite unabashed about his lifelong association with military authorities in whatever country he happened to reside at the time."

Sydney Goldstein, who also wrote the Royal Society memoir for Kármán, reviewed the autobiography[28] and remembered "an eminent engineer and scientist, warm-hearted and witty, much traveled, well-known by many, devoted to international collaboration, who, in his own words, as a scientist found the military 'the most comfortable group to deal with'".

Honors and legacy edit

 
Presentation of the National Medal of Science to Theodore von Kármán by President Kennedy.

See also edit

Further reading edit

  • I. Chang, Thread of the Silkworm. Perseus Books Group (1995). ISBN 0-465-08716-7.
  • D. S. Halacy, Jr., Father of Supersonic Flight: Theodor von Kármán (1965).
  • M. H. Gorn, The Universal Man: Theodore von Kármán's Life in Aeronautics (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1992).
  • G. Gabrielli, "Theodore von Kármán", Atti Accad. Sci. Torino Cl. Sci. Fis. Mat. Natur. 98 (1963/1964), 471–485.
  • R. C. Hall, "Shaping the course of aeronautics, rocketry, and astronautics: Theodore von Kármán, 1881–1963," J. Astronaut. Sci. 26 (4) (1978), 369–386.
  • J. Polásek, "Theodore von Kármán and applied mathematics" (Czech), Pokroky Mat. Fyz. Astronom. 28 (6) (1983), 301–310.
  • Wattendorf, F. L. (1956). "Theodore von Kármán, international scientist". Z. Flugwiss. 4: 163–165.
  • Wattendorf, F. L.; Malina, F. J. (1964). "Theodore von Kármán, 1881–1963". Astronautica Acta. 10: 81.
  • Penner, S.S.; Williams, F.A.; Libby, P.A.; Nemat-Nasser, S. (1 January 2009). "Von Kármán's Work: The Later Years (1952 to 1963) and Legacy". Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. 41 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.010908.165156. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  • Greenberg, John L.; Goodstein, Judith R. (23 December 1983). "Theodore von Kármán and Applied Mathematics in America". Science. 222 (4630): 1300–1304. Bibcode:1983Sci...222.1300G. doi:10.1126/science.222.4630.1300. JSTOR 1691641. PMID 17773321. S2CID 19738034.
  • Antman, Stuart S. (2006). "Theodore von Kármán". A Panorama of Hungarian Mathematics in the Twentieth Century I. Bolyai Society Mathematical Studies. Vol. 14. pp. 373–382. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30721-1_11. ISBN 978-3-540-28945-6. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  • Dryden, Hugh L. (1965). Theodore von Karman. A Biographical Memoir (PDF). Washington D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 4 June 2023.

Notes edit

  1. ^ von Karman's own recollections about the prize and competition: "Selected students were kept in a closed room and given difficult mathematics problems, which demanded creative and even daring thinking. The teacher of the pupil who won the prize would gain great distinction, so the competition was keen and teachers worked hard to prepare their best students. I tried out for this prize against students of great attainments, and to my delight I managed to win. Now, I note that more than half of all the famous expatriate Hungarian scientists, and almost all the well-known ones in the United States, have won this prize."[9]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Goldstein, S. (1966). "Theodore von Karman 1881–1963". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 12: 334–365. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1966.0016. S2CID 72977857.
  2. ^ a b Theodore von Kármán at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ Chang, Iris, Thread of the Silkworm, Basic Books, 1996, pages 47–60
  4. ^ Greenberg, J. L.; Goodstein, J. R. (1983). "Theodore von Karman and Applied Mathematics in America". Science. 222 (4630): 1300–1304. Bibcode:1983Sci...222.1300G. doi:10.1126/science.222.4630.1300. PMID 17773321. S2CID 19738034.
  5. ^ Sears, W. R. (1965). "Some Recollections of Theodore von Kármán". Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 13: 175–183. doi:10.1137/0113011.
  6. ^ "Theodore von Kármán | Aerospace Engineer, Physicist & Mathematician | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 7 May 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Rhodes, Richard (18 September 2012). The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon and Schuster. pp. 104–108. ISBN 978-1-4391-2622-6. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Theodore von Kármán", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  9. ^ Náray-Szabó, Gábor; G, Palló (2012), The Hungarian Gymnasium Educational Experience and Its Influence on the Global Power Shift, Global Science & Technology Forum, ISBN 9780615573106, retrieved 6 June 2023
  10. ^ a b Theodore von Kármán with Lee Edson (1967) The Wind and Beyond, page 98
  11. ^ Alkemade, Dr. Ir. Fons (2010). . Amsterdam, the Netherlands: International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  12. ^ a b Sears, William R.; Sears, Mabel R. (January 1979). "The Karman Years at Galcit". Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. 11 (1): 1–11. Bibcode:1979AnRFM..11....1S. doi:10.1146/annurev.fl.11.010179.000245. ISSN 0066-4189.
  13. ^ Thomas, Shirley (1991). "Theodore von Kármán: The Consummate Educator". Leonardo. 24 (4): 419–426. doi:10.2307/1575519. ISSN 0024-094X. JSTOR 1575519. S2CID 146916763.
  14. ^ Othmar H. Ammann, Theodore von Kármán and Glenn B. Woodruff. The Failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a report to the administrator. Report to the Federal Works Agency, Washington, 1941
  15. ^ (PDF). Army Ballistic Missile Agency. p. 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-26.
  16. ^ Dick, Steven J., ed. (2010). "Chapter 10: The NACA, NASA, and the Supersonic-Hypersonic Frontier". NASA's First 50 Years Historical Perspectives (PDF). NASA. pp. 223–274. ISBN 978-0-16-084965-7. LCCN 2009015085. SP-2010-4704. (PDF) from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  17. ^ Bluth, John (July 15, 1994). "Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL". Jet Propulsion Laboratory UNIVERSE. 24 (14).
  18. ^ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details". NSF.
  19. ^ Physics Today
  20. ^ Legends of Hollywood Forever Cemetery
  21. ^ A marslakók legendája - György Marx
  22. ^ Sears, W. R. (1986). "Von Kármán: Fluid Dynamics and Other Things". Physics Today. 39 (1): 34. Bibcode:1986PhT....39a..34S. doi:10.1063/1.881063.
  23. ^ Thomas P. Hughes (1968) The American Historical Review
  24. ^ Stanley Corrsin (1968) Isis 59(2)
  25. ^ I. B. Holley (1968) Science v 159 #3814
  26. ^ J. Kestin (1969) Journal of Applied Mechanics 36(1)
  27. ^ Charles Süsskind (1968) Technology and Culture
  28. ^ Sydney Goldstein (1968) Journal of Fluid Mechanics 33(2) doi:10.1017/S0022112068221390
  29. ^ "Theodore von Karman". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  30. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  31. ^ "Theodore von Karman". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 9 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  32. ^ . ASCE. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30.
  33. ^ Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-1-57864-397-4.
  34. ^ . International Academy of Astronautics. Archived from the original on 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  35. ^ "AEDC Fellows". Arnold Air Force Base.
  36. ^ Bilger, Burkhard (April 22, 2013) "The Martian Chroniclers", The New Yorker. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  37. ^ "Von Kármán Lecture Series". Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  38. ^ "1992 29¢ Theodore von Karman Stamps Scott #2699". Exploring Space Stamps.
  39. ^ Kennedy, John F. (February 18, 1963) "Remarks Upon Presenting the National Medal of Science to Theodore von Karman" 2015-02-20 at the Wayback Machine. The American Presidency Project.
  40. ^ "Theodor Von Karman". The Franklin Institute. 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  41. ^ Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures. American Mathematical Society
  42. ^ von Kármán, Theodore (1940). "The engineer grapples with nonlinear problems". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 46 (8): 615–683. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1940-07266-0. MR 0003131.
  43. ^ "The International von Kármán Wings Award". Caltech. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  44. ^ Fontos események li-2.hu, retrieved 10 June 2019.
  45. ^ "Enshrinee Theodore Karman". nationalaviation.org. National Aviation Hall of Fame. Retrieved 28 February 2023.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theodore von Kármán.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Theodore von Kármán.

January 01, 1970
theodore, kármán, kármán, redirects, here, other, uses, kármán, disambiguation, native, form, this, personal, name, kármán, tódor, this, article, uses, western, name, order, when, mentioning, individuals, hungarian, szőllőskislaki, kármán, tódor, søːløːʃkiʃlɒk. Von Karman redirects here For other uses see Von Karman disambiguation The native form of this personal name is Karman Todor This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals Theodore von Karman Hungarian szolloskislaki Karman Todor soːloːʃkiʃlɒki ˈkaːrmaːn ˈtoːdor born Tivadar Mihaly Karman 11 May 1881 6 May 1963 was a Hungarian American mathematician aerospace engineer and physicist who worked in aeronautics and astronautics He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic and hypersonic airflow The human defined threshold of outer space is named the Karman line in recognition of his work Karman is regarded as an outstanding aerodynamic theoretician of the 20th century 3 4 5 Theodore von KarmanVon Karman in 1957BornTivadar Mihaly Karman 1881 05 11 May 11 1881Budapest Austria HungaryDiedMay 6 1963 1963 05 06 aged 81 Aachen West GermanyResting placeHollywood Forever CemeteryHollywood California U S NationalityHungarianCitizenshipHungaryUnited StatesAlma materBudapest University of Technology and Economics University of GottingenKnown forSee list Karman vortex streetvon Karman constantvon Karman swirling flowvon Karman momentum integralKarman Moore theoryKarman Moore solutionKarman lineKarman Howarth equationLaw of the wallSupersonic and hypersonic airflow characterizationAwardsASME Medal 1941 John Fritz Medal 1948 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy 1954 Daniel Guggenheim Medal 1955 Timoshenko Medal 1958 National Medal of Science 1962 Wilhelm Exner Medal 1962 Foreign Member of the Royal Society 1 Scientific careerFieldsAerospace EngineeringInstitutionsUniversity of Gottingen RWTH Aachen California Institute of Technology von Karman Institute for Fluid DynamicsThesisInvestigations on buckling strength 1908 Doctoral advisorLudwig Prandtl 2 Doctoral studentsGiuseppe Gabrielli 1926 Wolfgang Klemperer 1926 Richard G Folsom 1932 Maurice Anthony Biot 1932 Frank Wattendorf 1933 Ernest Sechler 1934 Arthur T Ippen 1936 Qian Xuesen 1939 Louis Dunn 1940 Frank Malina 1940 Homer J Stewart 1940 Hu Ning 1943 Guo Yonghuai 1944 Chia Chiao Lin 1944 Wallace D Hayes 1947 Frank E Marble 1947 2 Contents 1 Early life 2 Emigration and JPL 3 Last years 4 Selected contributions 5 Selected writings 5 1 Books 5 2 Autobiography 6 Honors and legacy 7 See also 8 Further reading 9 Notes 10 References 11 External linksEarly life editTheodore von Karman was born into a Jewish family in Budapest Austria Hungary as Karman Todor the son of Helene Konn or Kohn Hungarian Kohn Ilka and Mor Karman eo 1 Among his ancestors were Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel who was said to be the creator of the Golem of Prague and Rabbi Moses ben Menachem Mendel Kunitz hu he who wrote about Zohar 1 His father Mor was a well known educator who reformed the Hungarian school system and founded Minta Gymnasium in Budapest He became an influential figure and became a commissioner of the Ministry of Education 6 and was responsible for planning an education of a young archduke the Emperor s cousin In 1907 Mor Karman was ennobled Theodore later described it 7 To receive a predicate of nobility my father had to be landed Fortunately he owned a small vineyard near Budapest so the Emperor bestowed upon him the predicate von Szolloskislaki small grape I have shortened it to von for even to me a Hungarian the full title is almost unpronounceable 7 Theodore had three brothers among them Elemer Karman eo and one sister Josephine At age six he could perform large mental calculations 8 for example multiplication of six digit numbers 7 Father discouraged Theodore s mathematical education he was afraid that his son would be a child prodigy and a freak 8 He was tutored by his father and his father s former student later he entered the Minta Gymnasium in Budapest He won Eotvos Prize for the best student in mathematics and science in the whole of Hungary in his last year at Minta 8 a He studied engineering at the city s Royal Joseph Technical University Budapest University of Technology and Economics He graduated in 1902 with a degree in mechanical engineering his thesis was The motion of a heavy rod supported on its rounded end by a horizontal plane He then served a year as an artillery cadet in the Austro Hungarian army 8 In 1903 1906 he worked as an assistant at the Royal Joseph Technical University In 1906 he moved to the German Empire and joined Ludwig Prandtl at the University of Gottingen where he received his doctorate in 1908 for his research on mathematical models for the buckling of large structures 8 He taught at Gottingen for four years In 1913 he accepted a position as director of the Aeronautical Institute at RWTH Aachen University a leading German university His time at RWTH Aachen was interrupted by service in the Austro Hungarian Army from 1915 to 1918 during the World War I when he designed the Petroczy Karman Zurovec an early helicopter 8 After the war in 1919 he returned to Aachen with his mother and sister Josephine Some of his students took an interest in gliding and saw the competitions of the Rhon Rossitten Gesellschaft as an opportunity to advance in aeronautics Karman engaged Wolfgang Klemperer to design a competitive glider 10 Josephine encouraged her brother Theodore to expand his science beyond national boundaries They organized the first international conference in mechanics held in September 1922 in Innsbruck Subsequent conferences were organized as the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics 11 In 1926 Karman was first invited to the USA by the California Institute of Technology to build a wind tunnel 12 8 In 1930 he was invited for a position of a full time director of the Aeronautical Laboratory at California Institute of Technology his mother and sister Josephine also moved to California 8 Emigration and JPL edit nbsp 1931 drawing of Theodore von Karman nbsp Von Karman center during his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1940 Apprehensive about developments in Europe regarding Nazism in 1930 Karman accepted the directorship of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology GALCIT 12 The directorship included provision for a research assistant and he selected Frank Wattendorf an American who had been studying for three years in Aachen 13 Another student Ernest Edwin Sechler took up the problem of making reliable airframes for aircraft and with Karman s support developed an understanding of aeroelasticity In 1936 Karman engaged the legal services of Andrew G Haley to form the Aerojet Corporation with his graduate student Frank Malina and their experimental rocketry collaborators Jack Parsons and Edward Forman to manufacture JATO rocket motors Karman later became a naturalized citizen of the United States In 1940 Karman was selected by John M Carmody Administrator of the Federal Works Agency to be on the Board of Engineers tasked with investigating the November 7 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge outside Tacoma Washington His expertise was instrumental in discovering the effect of aerodynamic forces on the bridge causing its unusual galloping behavior and eventual collapse Along with Civil Engineers Othmar Amman and Glenn B Woodruff he published the report The Failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge 14 on March 28 1941 German activity during World War II increased US military interest in rocket research In early 1943 the Experimental Engineering Division of the United States Army Air Forces Material Command forwarded to Karman reports from British intelligence sources describing German rockets capable of travelling more than 100 miles 160 km In a letter dated 2 August 1943 Karman provided the Army with his analysis of and comments on the German program 15 In 1944 he and others affiliated with GALCIT founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL which is now a federally funded research and development center managed and operated by Caltech under a contract from NASA In 1946 he became the first chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group which studied aeronautical technologies for the United States Army Air Forces He also helped found AGARD the NATO aerodynamics research oversight group 1951 the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences 1956 the International Academy of Astronautics 1960 and the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Sint Genesius Rode south of Brussels 1956 He eventually became an important figure in supersonic motion noting in a seminal paper that aeronautical engineers were pounding hard on the closed door leading into the field of supersonic motion 16 Last years editIn June 1944 von Karman underwent surgery for intestinal cancer in New York City The surgery caused two hernias and Karman s recovery was slow Early in September while still in New York he met US Army Air Forces Commanding General Henry H Arnold on a runway at LaGuardia Airport and Arnold then proposed that Karman should move to Washington D C to lead the Scientific Advisory Group and become a long range planning consultant to the military Karman returned to Pasadena around mid September was appointed to the SAG position on October 23 1944 and left Caltech in December 1944 17 At the age of 81 Karman was the recipient of the first National Medal of Science bestowed in a White House ceremony by President John F Kennedy He was recognized For his leadership in the science and engineering basic to aeronautics for his effective teaching and related contributions in many fields of mechanics for his distinguished counsel to the Armed Services and for his promoting international cooperation in science and engineering 18 Karman never married He died on a trip to Aachen West Germany in 1963 five days short of his 82nd birthday 19 and his body was returned to the United States to be entombed in the Beth Olam Mausoleum at what is now the Hollywood Forever Cemetery 20 He has sometimes been described as one of The Martians 21 Karman s fame was in the use of mathematical tools to study fluid flow 22 and the interpretation of those results to guide practical designs He was instrumental in recognizing the importance of swept back wings ubiquitous in modern jet aircraft Selected contributions edit nbsp Theodore von Karman left is joined by Air Force and NASA officials while inspecting two of the models used in the high velocity high altitude wind tunnels at Arnold Air Force Base 1959 The missiles are Agard B and Atlas Series B Specific contributions include theories of non elastic buckling unsteady wakes in circum cylinder flow stability of laminar flow turbulence airfoils in steady and unsteady flow boundary layers and supersonic aerodynamics He made additional contributions in other fields including elasticity vibration heat transfer and crystallography His name also appears in a number of concepts for example Foppl von Karman equations large deflection of elastic plates Born von Karman boundary condition in solid state physics Born von Karman lattice model model for the lattice dynamics of a crystal Chaplygin Karman Tsien approximation potential flow Falkowich Karman equation transonic flow von Karman constant wall turbulence Karman Moore theory Karman Moore solution Karman line aerodynamics astronautics von Karman Gabrielli diagram transportation Karman Howarth equation turbulence Karman Penner flux fraction combustion Karman Nikuradse correlation viscous flow coauthored by Johann Nikuradse Karman Pohlhausen parameter boundary layers Karman Treffz transform Prandtl von Karman law velocity in open channel flow Von Karman momentum integral von Karman ogive supersonic aerodynamics von Karman strain von Karman vortex street flow past cylinder von Karman wind turbulence model von Karman Tsien compressibility correction Vortex shedding Von Karman swirling flowSelected writings editMain article Theodore von Karman bibliography Books edit von Karman Theodore Burgers J M 1924 General Aerodynamic Theory 2 vols Julius Springer von Karman Theodore Biot M A 1940 Mathematical Methods in Engineering An introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Engineering Problems McGraw Hill pp 505 ASIN B0006AOTLK von Karman Theodore Biot M A 2004 Aerodynamics Selected Topics in the Light of Their Historical Development Dover Books on Aeronautical Engineering Dover Publications p 224 ISBN 978 0 486 43485 8 von Karman Theodore 1956 Collected Works of Dr T von Karman 1902 1951 4 vols Butterworth Scientific Publications von Karman Theodore 1961 From Low Speed Aerodynamics to Astronautics Pergamon Press ASIN B000H4OVPO von Karman Theodore Edson L 1967 The Wind and Beyond T von Karman Pioneer in Aviation and Pathfinder in Space Little Brown p 376 ISBN 978 0 316 90753 8 Autobiography edit Four years after Karman died his autobiography The Wind and Beyond was published by Lee Edson with Little Brown and Company Seven major academic journals then followed with book reviews by noted authors As the book was non technical written for the general reader Thomas P Hughes 23 cited that as problematic given the technical context of Karman s work Hughes conceded that Karman exhibited a genius for finding the simplifying assumptions that made possible the mathematical analysis While acknowledging Karman s gifts as an applied mathematician and teacher Stanley Corrsin points out that the autobiography is marriage between a man and his ego In the later part of his life Karman was a planner of global symposia and societies and a consultant to the upper echelons of the Pentagon corps 24 On creativity Karman wrote the finest creative thought comes not out of organized teams but out of the quiet of one s own world 10 307 In his review 25 I B Holley noted penetrating insights into the creative process its ingredients nurture and exploitation According to Holley Karman was given to convivial drinking and the company of beautiful women An enthusiastic review by J Kestin 26 advised readers to buy and study the book and prize it as a reference On the other hand Charles Susskind 27 faults Karman for his contempt for the conventional gaminarie Susskind expected the book to show some reaction to Wernher von Braun s coming to America and some clarification of the Hsue shen Tsien affair rather than lapses into generalities Susskind also tags Karman as a militarist a forthright engineer who is quite unabashed about his lifelong association with military authorities in whatever country he happened to reside at the time Sydney Goldstein who also wrote the Royal Society memoir for Karman reviewed the autobiography 28 and remembered an eminent engineer and scientist warm hearted and witty much traveled well known by many devoted to international collaboration who in his own words as a scientist found the military the most comfortable group to deal with Honors and legacy edit nbsp Presentation of the National Medal of Science to Theodore von Karman by President Kennedy Karman was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1938 29 the American Philosophical Society in 1941 30 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948 31 Each year since 1960 the American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded to an individual the Theodore von Karman Medal in recognition of distinguished achievement in engineering mechanics 32 Established in 1968 the Theodore von Karman Prize has been awarded by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics to recognize outstanding application of mathematics in mechanics or engineering In 1968 Karman was inducted into the International Air amp Space Hall of Fame 33 Established in 1983 the Theodore von Karman Award has been awarded annually by the International Academy of Astronautics to recognize outstanding lifetime achievements in any branch of science without limit of nationality or sex 34 In 2005 Karman was named as an Honorary Fellow of the Arnold Engineering Development Center AEDC Fellows of the AEDC are recognized as People who have made exceptionally distinguished contributions to the center s flight testing mission 35 Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor The boundary between the atmosphere and space is named the Karman line In Irvine CA there is a five mile street in the heart of Irvine s business center named after him In 1977 RWTH Aachen University named its newly constructed main lecture hall complex Karman Auditorium in memory of Karman s outstanding research contributions at the university s Aeronautical Institute An auditorium at JPL is named after Karman 36 as is a series of monthly lectures held there since 2007 37 An auditorium at AFRL is named after Arnold and Karman University of Southern California Professor Shirley Thomas after nearly two decades of petitioning was able to create a postage stamp in his honor 38 In 1963 President Kennedy awarded Karman the National Medal of Science Dr von Karman it is a great pleasure for me to select you as the first recipient of the National Medal of Science I know of no one else who more completely represents all of the areas with which this award is appropriately concerned science engineering and education 39 In 1957 Karman became the first recipient of the Ludwig Prandtl Ring from Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Luft und Raumfahrt German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics for outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering In 1956 Karman founded a research institute in Sint Genesius Rode Belgium which is now named after him the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics In 1948 Karman was awarded the Franklin Medal 40 The American Mathematical Society selected Karman as its Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecturer for 1939 41 42 The International von Karman Wings Award Banquet is an annual affair 43 The only still airworthy Lisunov Li 2 plane reg HA LIX has been named Karman Todor in 2002 44 In 1983 He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton Ohio 45 See also editThe Martians scientists Yoshimura buckling von Karman Institute for Fluid DynamicsFurther reading editI Chang Thread of the Silkworm Perseus Books Group 1995 ISBN 0 465 08716 7 D S Halacy Jr Father of Supersonic Flight Theodor von Karman 1965 M H Gorn The Universal Man Theodore von Karman s Life in Aeronautics Smithsonian Institution Press Washington 1992 G Gabrielli Theodore von Karman Atti Accad Sci Torino Cl Sci Fis Mat Natur 98 1963 1964 471 485 R C Hall Shaping the course of aeronautics rocketry and astronautics Theodore von Karman 1881 1963 J Astronaut Sci 26 4 1978 369 386 J Polasek Theodore von Karman and applied mathematics Czech Pokroky Mat Fyz Astronom 28 6 1983 301 310 Wattendorf F L 1956 Theodore von Karman international scientist Z Flugwiss 4 163 165 Wattendorf F L Malina F J 1964 Theodore von Karman 1881 1963 Astronautica Acta 10 81 Penner S S Williams F A Libby P A Nemat Nasser S 1 January 2009 Von Karman s Work The Later Years 1952 to 1963 and Legacy Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 41 1 1 15 doi 10 1146 annurev fluid 010908 165156 Retrieved 4 June 2023 Greenberg John L Goodstein Judith R 23 December 1983 Theodore von Karman and Applied Mathematics in America Science 222 4630 1300 1304 Bibcode 1983Sci 222 1300G doi 10 1126 science 222 4630 1300 JSTOR 1691641 PMID 17773321 S2CID 19738034 Antman Stuart S 2006 Theodore von Karman A Panorama of Hungarian Mathematics in the Twentieth Century I Bolyai Society Mathematical Studies Vol 14 pp 373 382 doi 10 1007 978 3 540 30721 1 11 ISBN 978 3 540 28945 6 Retrieved 4 June 2023 Dryden Hugh L 1965 Theodore von Karman A Biographical Memoir PDF Washington D C National Academy of Sciences Retrieved 4 June 2023 Notes edit von Karman s own recollections about the prize and competition Selected students were kept in a closed room and given difficult mathematics problems which demanded creative and even daring thinking The teacher of the pupil who won the prize would gain great distinction so the competition was keen and teachers worked hard to prepare their best students I tried out for this prize against students of great attainments and to my delight I managed to win Now I note that more than half of all the famous expatriate Hungarian scientists and almost all the well known ones in the United States have won this prize 9 References edit a b c Goldstein S 1966 Theodore von Karman 1881 1963 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 12 334 365 doi 10 1098 rsbm 1966 0016 S2CID 72977857 a b Theodore von Karman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project Chang Iris Thread of the Silkworm Basic Books 1996 pages 47 60 Greenberg J L Goodstein J R 1983 Theodore von Karman and Applied Mathematics in America Science 222 4630 1300 1304 Bibcode 1983Sci 222 1300G doi 10 1126 science 222 4630 1300 PMID 17773321 S2CID 19738034 Sears W R 1965 Some Recollections of Theodore von Karman Journal of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 13 175 183 doi 10 1137 0113011 Theodore von Karman Aerospace Engineer Physicist amp Mathematician Britannica www britannica com 7 May 2023 Retrieved 6 June 2023 a b c Rhodes Richard 18 September 2012 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Simon and Schuster pp 104 108 ISBN 978 1 4391 2622 6 Retrieved 5 June 2023 a b c d e f g h O Connor John J Robertson Edmund F Theodore von Karman MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive University of St Andrews Naray Szabo Gabor G Pallo 2012 The Hungarian Gymnasium Educational Experience and Its Influence on the Global Power Shift Global Science amp Technology Forum ISBN 9780615573106 retrieved 6 June 2023 a b Theodore von Karman with Lee Edson 1967 The Wind and Beyond page 98 Alkemade Dr Ir Fons 2010 IUTAM History Amsterdam the Netherlands International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Archived from the original on 17 July 2011 Retrieved 29 December 2010 a b Sears William R Sears Mabel R January 1979 The Karman Years at Galcit Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 11 1 1 11 Bibcode 1979AnRFM 11 1S doi 10 1146 annurev fl 11 010179 000245 ISSN 0066 4189 Thomas Shirley 1991 Theodore von Karman The Consummate Educator Leonardo 24 4 419 426 doi 10 2307 1575519 ISSN 0024 094X JSTOR 1575519 S2CID 146916763 Othmar H Ammann Theodore von Karman and Glenn B Woodruff The Failure of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge a report to the administrator Report to the Federal Works Agency Washington 1941 Development of the Corporal the embryo of the army missile program vol 1 PDF Army Ballistic Missile Agency p 26 Archived from the original PDF on 2009 03 26 Dick Steven J ed 2010 Chapter 10 The NACA NASA and the Supersonic Hypersonic Frontier NASA s First 50 Years Historical Perspectives PDF NASA pp 223 274 ISBN 978 0 16 084965 7 LCCN 2009015085 SP 2010 4704 Archived PDF from the original on June 7 2023 Retrieved June 6 2023 Bluth John July 15 1994 Von Karman Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory UNIVERSE 24 14 The President s National Medal of Science Recipient Details NSF Physics Today Legends of Hollywood Forever Cemetery A marslakok legendaja Gyorgy Marx Sears W R 1986 Von Karman Fluid Dynamics and Other Things Physics Today 39 1 34 Bibcode 1986PhT 39a 34S doi 10 1063 1 881063 Thomas P Hughes 1968 The American Historical Review Stanley Corrsin 1968 Isis 59 2 I B Holley 1968 Science v 159 3814 J Kestin 1969 Journal of Applied Mechanics 36 1 Charles Susskind 1968 Technology and Culture Sydney Goldstein 1968 Journal of Fluid Mechanics 33 2 doi 10 1017 S0022112068221390 Theodore von Karman www nasonline org Retrieved 2023 04 28 APS Member History search amphilsoc org Retrieved 2023 04 28 Theodore von Karman American Academy of Arts amp Sciences 9 February 2023 Retrieved 2023 04 28 Theodore von Karman Medal ASCE Archived from the original on 2007 09 30 Sprekelmeyer Linda editor These We Honor The International Aerospace Hall of Fame Donning Co Publishers 2006 ISBN 978 1 57864 397 4 von Karman Award International Academy of Astronautics Archived from the original on 2009 12 15 Retrieved 2019 04 10 AEDC Fellows Arnold Air Force Base Bilger Burkhard April 22 2013 The Martian Chroniclers The New Yorker Retrieved 2013 04 23 Von Karman Lecture Series Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1992 29 Theodore von Karman Stamps Scott 2699 Exploring Space Stamps Kennedy John F February 18 1963 Remarks Upon Presenting the National Medal of Science to Theodore von Karman Archived 2015 02 20 at the Wayback Machine The American Presidency Project Theodor Von Karman The Franklin Institute 2014 01 15 Retrieved 2022 09 23 Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures American Mathematical Society von Karman Theodore 1940 The engineer grapples with nonlinear problems Bull Amer Math Soc 46 8 615 683 doi 10 1090 s0002 9904 1940 07266 0 MR 0003131 The International von Karman Wings Award Caltech Retrieved 23 February 2023 Fontos esemenyek li 2 hu retrieved 10 June 2019 Enshrinee Theodore Karman nationalaviation org National Aviation Hall of Fame Retrieved 28 February 2023 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theodore von Karman nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Theodore von Karman Works by or about Theodore von Karman at Internet Archive Judith R Goodstein and Carolyn Kopp 1981 Guide to the Von Karman Collections Institute Archives Robert A Millikan Library California Institute of Technology Pasadena California JPL Director 1938 44 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium Theodore von Karman from American National Biography Video recording of the N Peters s lecture on life and work of Theodore von Karman Theodore von Karman at Find a Grave Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Theodore von Karman amp oldid 1214192294, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.