Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German scientist
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (July 1, 1742 - February 24, 1799), German scientist. He was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. He is remembered for his investigations in electricity, and for discovering branching discharge patterns on dielectrics now called Lichtenberg figures. By discharging a high voltage point near an insulator, he was able to record strange tree-like patterns in fixed dust. These Lichtenberg figures are considered today to be examples of fractals. He is also remembered for his posthumously published notebooks. They reveal a critical and analytical way of thinking with an emphasis on experimental evidence in physics, through which he became one of the early founders and advocates of modern scientific methodology. Artwork by Heinrich Schwenterley.
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