physics

Heinrich Greinacher

Heinrich Greinacher is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Heinrich Greinacher rather than just read about it. In short: Heinrich Greinacher (May 31, 1880 in St. Gallen – April 17, 1974 in Bern) was a Swiss physicist.

Key takeaways

Heinrich Greinacher belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Heinrich Greinacher to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Heinrich Greinacher from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Heinrich Greinacher (May 31, 1880 in St. Gallen – April 17, 1974 in Bern) was a Swiss physicist. He is regarded as an original experimenter and is the developer of the magnetron and the Greinacher multiplier. Greinacher was the only child of master shoemaker Heinrich Greinacher and his wife Pauline, born Münzenmayer. He went to school in St. Gallen and studied physics at both Zurich, Geneva and Berlin. He also trained as a pianist at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. Originally a German citizen, he was naturalized in 1894 as a Swiss citizen. In Berlin, Greinacher attended the lectures of Max Planck and received a doctorate in 1904 under Emil Warburg. He did his habilitation in 1907 at the University of Zurich, and in 1912, he moved to Zurich on a permanent basis. From 1924 to 1952, he was full professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Bern and the director of the Physical Institute (formerly Physics Cabinett). In 1912, Greinacher developed the magnetron and gave a fundamental mathematical description of this tube. In 1914, he invented the Greinacher circuit (a rectifier circuit for voltage doubling). In 1919, he generalized this idea to a cascaded voltage multiplier, and developed detection methods for charged particles (proportional counter, spark counter). In the 1930s, using an independently invented Greinacher-style multiplier to research atomic nuclei, British researchers Cockroft and Walton discovered artificial radioactivity. Greinacher was married twice: in 1910 to the German Marie Mahlmann, with whom he had two children, and then again in 1933 to Frieda Urben from Inkwil.

Foundation A foundation was established in Bern in 1988 with the name of Heinrich-Greinacher-Stiftung from the estate of the couple Frieda and Heinrich Greinacher. Interest income of the Foundation's capital is used to fund the Heinrich Greinacher Prize and for the promotion of young researchers and scientists.

References Heinz Balmer: Heinrich Greinacher zum Abschied. In: Physikalische Blätter. Bd. 30 (1974), Heft 10, S. 463–465

Publications Negotiations of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences. Issue 154 (1974), p. 239-251 (with a catalog) Hans Erich Hollmann:physics and technology of the ultra-waves. Volume 1 Production ultrakurzwelliger oscillations.

External links A video demonstration of a Greinacher tube Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Heinrich Greinacher

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Heinrich Greinacher claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Heinrich Greinacher before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Heinrich Greinacher ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Heinrich Greinacher

In research: Heinrich Greinacher appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Heinrich Greinacher in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Heinrich Greinacher is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1880 births, 1974 deaths, People from St. Gallen (city), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Heinrich Greinacher outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Heinrich Greinacher in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Heinrich Greinacher means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Heinrich Greinacher out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Heinrich Greinacher in simple terms?

Heinrich Greinacher (May 31, 1880 in St. Gallen – April 17, 1974 in Bern) was a Swiss physicist.

Why does Heinrich Greinacher matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Heinrich Greinacher?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Heinrich Greinacher.