Felix Christian Klein

Library of Congress

[b. Düsseldorf, Germany, April 25, 1849, d. Göttingen, Germany, June 22, 1925]

Klein worked with transformations while a student and gained fame by unifying the different types of geometry (Euclidean, non-Euclidean, projective, and topological) in terms of groups of transformations. Euclidean geometry, for example, can be analyzed as based in the group of reflections. Klein also invented the Klein bottle and developed the theory of the gyroscope.

History of Science and Technology, edited by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.