physics

Max Abraham

Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham rather than just read about it. In short: Max Abraham (German: [ˈaːbʀaham]; 26 March 1875 – 16 November 1922) was a German physicist known for his work on electromagnetism and his opposition to the theory of relativity. Biography Abraham was born in Danzig, Imperial Germany (now Gdańsk in Poland) to a family of Jewish merchants.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Max Abraham (German: [ˈaːbʀaham]; 26 March 1875 – 16 November 1922) was a German physicist known for his work on electromagnetism and his opposition to the theory of relativity.

Biography Abraham was born in Danzig, Imperial Germany (now Gdańsk in Poland) to a family of Jewish merchants. His father was Moritz Abraham and his mother was Selma Moritzsohn. Attending the University of Berlin, he studied under Max Planck. He graduated in 1897. For the next three years, Abraham worked as Planck's assistant. From 1900 to 1909, Abraham worked at Göttingen as a privatdozent, an unpaid lecturing position. Abraham developed his theory of the electron in 1902, in which he hypothesized that the electron was a perfect sphere with a charge divided evenly around its surface. Abraham's model was competing with that developed by Hendrik Lorentz (1899, 1904) and Albert Einstein (1905) which seem to have become more widely accepted; nevertheless, Abraham never gave up his model, since he considered it was based on "common sense". Abraham was a staunch opponent of the theory of relativity. In 1909 Abraham travelled to the United States to accept a position at the University of Illinois, but ended up returning to Göttingen after a few months. He was later invited to Italy by Tullio Levi-Civita, and found work as the professor of rational mechanics at the Politecnico di Milano university until 1914. When World War I started, Abraham was forced to return to Germany. During this time he worked on the theory of radio transmission. After the war, he still was not allowed back into Milan, so until 1921 he worked at Stuttgart as the professor of physics at Technische Hochschule. After his work at Stuttgart, Abraham accepted the position of chair in Aachen; however, before he started his work there he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died on 16 November 1922 in Munich, Germany. After his death, Max Born and Max von Laue wrote about him in an obituary: He loved his absolute aether, his field equations, his rigid electron just as a youth loves his first flame, whose memory no later experience can extinguish.

Publications Abraham, M. (1902). "Dynamik des Electrons" . Göttinger Nachrichten (in German): 20–41. Abraham, M. (1902). "Prinzipien der Dynamik des Elektrons". Physikalische Zeitschrift (in German). 4 (1b): 57–62. Bibcode:1902AnP...315..105A. doi:10.1002/andp.19023150105. Abraham, M. (1903). "Prinzipien der Dynamik des Elektrons". Annalen der Physik (in German). 10 (1): 105–179. Bibcode:1902AnP...315..105A. doi:10.1002/andp.19023150105. Abraham, M. (1904). "Die Grundhypothesen der Elektronentheorie" . Physikalische Zeitschrift (in German). 5: 576–579. Abraham, M. (1904). "Zur Theorie der Strahlung und des Strahlungsdruckes". Annalen der Physik (in German). 14 (7): 236–287. Bibcode:1904AnP...319..236A. doi:10.1002/andp.19043190703. Archived from the original on 2007-06-11. Abraham, M.; Föppl. A. (1904). Theorie der Elektrizität: Einführung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizität (in German). Leipzig: Teubner. Abraham, M. (1905). Theorie der Elektrizität: Elektromagnetische Theorie der Strahlung (in German). Leipzig: Teubner. Zweite Auflage. B.G. Teubner. 1908. Abraham, M. (1912). "Relativitaet und Gravitation. Erwiderung auf eine Bemerkung des Herrn A. Einstein". Annalen der Physik (in German). 38 (10): 1056–1058. Bibcode:1912AnP...343.1056A. doi:10.1002/andp.19123431013. Abraham, M. (1912). "Nochmals Relativitaet und Gravitation. Bemerkungen zu A. Einsteins Erwiderung". Annalen der Physik (in German). 39 (12): 444–448. Bibcode:1912AnP...344..444A. doi:10.1002/andp.19123441208. Abraham, M. (1914). "Die neue Mechanik". Scientia (in German). 15: 8–27. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2008-06-09.

References

Further reading Goldberg, Stanley (1970). "Abraham, Max". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 23–25. ISBN 0-684-10114-9.

External links Works by or about Max Abraham at Wikisource German Wikisource has original text related to this article: Max Abraham

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Max Abraham

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham

In research: Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham 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: Max Abraham is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1875 births, 1922 deaths, 20th-century German Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Max Abraham means in your own words.
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Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Max Abraham in simple terms?

Max Abraham (German: [ˈaːbʀaham]; 26 March 1875 – 16 November 1922) was a German physicist known for his work on electromagnetism and his opposition to the theory of relativity. Biography Abraham was born in Danzig, Imperial Germany (now Gdańsk in Poland) to a family of Jewish merchants.

Why does Max Abraham 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 Max Abraham?

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 Max Abraham.