Adriaan Fokker

Adriaan Fokker

Infobox_Scientist
name = Adriaan Fokker


caption = Adriaan Daniël Fokker
birth_date = birth date|1887|8|17|mf=y
birth_place = Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies
death_date = death date and age|1972|9|24|1887|8|17|mf=y
death_place = Beekbergen, Netherlands
residence =
nationality =
field = Physicist
work_institution = University of Leiden
Teylers Museum
alma_mater = Delft University of Technology
University of Leiden
doctoral_advisor = Hendrik Lorentz
doctoral_students =
known_for = Fokker-Planck equation
Fokker periodicity block
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =

Adriaan Daniël Fokker (August 17, 1887 – September 24, 1972), was a Dutch physicist and musician.

Fokker was born in Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies (now Bogor, Indonesia); he was a cousin of the aeronautical engineer Anthony Fokker. He studied mining engineering at the Delft University of Technology and physics at the University of Leiden with Hendrik Lorentz, where he earned his doctorate in 1913. He continued his studies with Albert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford and William Bragg. In his 1913 thesis, he derived the Fokker-Planck equation along with Max Planck. After his military service during World War I he returned to Leiden as Lorentz' and Ehrenfest's assistant.In 1928 Fokker succeeded Hendrik Lorentz as director of research at Teylers Museum in Haarlem.

Fokker began to study music theory during the Second World War, when the University of Leiden was closed; partly this was due to a desire to convince the Nazis he would be of no use to the war effort, and partly it was a response to reading the work of Christiaan Huygens on the 31 equal temperament. The year 1942 consequently marked a turning point in his life; after then he wrote many pieces in 31-equal, which are notable for using the 7th harmonic as a consonant interval (31-equal has a much better approximation of the 7th harmonic than the ubiquitous 12-equal). He also made notable contributions to music theory, such as the Fokker periodicity block.

He died at Beekbergen (near Apeldoorn).

Musical instruments

Fokker designed and had built a number of keyboard instruments capable of playing microtonal scales via a generalized keyboard. The best-known of these is his 31-tone equal-tempered organ, which was installed in Teyler's Museum in Haarlem in 1951. It is commonly called the Fokker organ.

ee also

* Fokker-Planck equation
* Fokker periodicity blocks
* Euler-Fokker genus

External links

* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/fokker.html Short biography from the Huygens-Fokker Foundation]
* [http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/museum/collectionitems.jsp?view=%2Fxsl%2Fhtml&pageName=museum_collection_areas_item&lang=nl&id=3337 Fokker's Euler organ at the Teylers Museum]


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  • Adriaan Fokker — Adriaan Daniel Fokker (1934) Adriaan Daniël Fokker (Buitenzorg, Indias orientales (hoy Bogor, Indonesia), 17 de agosto de 1887–Beekbergen (cerca de Apeldoorn), 24 de septiembre de 1972) fue un físico y músico holandés. Véase t …   Wikipedia Español

  • Adriaan — is the Dutch spelling of the given name Adrian.Adriaan may refer to: People*Adriaan Reland *Adriaan van Maanen *Adriaan Vlacq *Adriaan Fokker *Adriaan Pauw *Adriaan Valckener *Adriaan Botha *Adriaan Vlok *Adriaan Blaauw *Adriaan Koonings *Adriaan …   Wikipedia

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  • Adriaan Daniel Fokker — Adriaan Daniël Fokker (* 17. August 1887 in Buitenzorg, Java; † 24. September 1972 in Beekbergen, Niederlande) war ein niederländischer Physiker und Musiker. Fokker studierte Bergbau an der Technischen Universität Delft und Physik an der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Adriaan — ist der Vorname folgender Personen: Hadrian VI. (Adriaan Florisz Boeyens; 1459–1523), von 1522 bis 1523 Papst Willem Adriaan Bonger (1876–1940), niederländischer Kriminologe und Soziologe Adriaan Daniël Fokker (1887–1972), niederländischer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fokker periodicity blocks — are a concept in tuning theory used to mathematically relate musical intervals in just intonation to those in equal tuning. They are named after Adriaan Daniël Fokker.The basic idea of Fokker s periodicity blocks is to represent just ratios as… …   Wikipedia

  • Fokker (Begriffsklärung) — Fokker ist der Name eines Flugzeugherstellers, siehe Fokker und ist der Name von folgenden Personen Adriaan Daniël Fokker (1887−1972), niederländischer Physiker und Musiker Anton Herman Gerard Fokker (1890−1939) niederländischer Flugzeugbauer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Fokker-Planck Gleichung — Die stets lineare Fokker Planck Gleichung (FPG, nach Adriaan Daniël Fokker (1887–1972) und Max Planck (1858–1947)) beschreibt die zeitliche Entwicklung einer Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung unter der Wirkung von Drift D1(x,t) und Diffusion D2(x,t) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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