engineering

Max Knoll

Max Knoll is a engineering 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 Knoll rather than just read about it. In short: Max Knoll (17 July 1897 – 6 November 1969) was a German electrical engineer and co-inventor of the electron microscope. Knoll was born in Wiesbaden and studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and at the Technische Hochschule München and the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg, where he obtained his doctorate in the Institute for High Voltage Technology.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Max Knoll (17 July 1897 – 6 November 1969) was a German electrical engineer and co-inventor of the electron microscope. Knoll was born in Wiesbaden and studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and at the Technische Hochschule München and the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg, where he obtained his doctorate in the Institute for High Voltage Technology. In 1927 he became the leader of the electron research group there, where he and his co-worker, Ernst Ruska, invented the electron microscope in 1931. In April 1932, Knoll joined Telefunken in Berlin to do developmental work in the field of television design. He was also a private lecturer in Berlin. After World War II, Knoll joined the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as an extraordinary professor and director of the Institute for Electromedicine. He moved to the USA in 1948, to work at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. In 1956, he returned to Munich and engaged in a series of experiments at the Technische Hochschule München, involving the generation of phosphenes by electrically stimulating the brains of himself and other subjects. He retired in 1966.

See also Scanning electron microscope Transmission electron microscopy Knoll, M.; Kugler, J. (December 1959). "Subjective Light Pattern Spectroscopy in the Encephalographic Frequency Range". Nature. 184 (4701): 1823–1824. Bibcode:1959Natur.184.1823K. doi:10.1038/1841823a0. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 14410179.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Max Knoll

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Max Knoll claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 Knoll 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 Knoll 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 Knoll

In research: Max Knoll appears in engineering 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 Knoll 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 Knoll is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1897 births, 1969 deaths, 20th-century German inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Max Knoll 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 Knoll in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Max Knoll 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 Max Knoll out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Max Knoll in simple terms?

Why does Max Knoll matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 Knoll?

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 Knoll.