born Nov. 17, 1790, Schulpforta, Saxony
died Sept. 26, 1868, Leipzig
German mathematician and theoretical astronomer.
He began teaching at the University of Leipzig in 1815, and established his reputation with many publications. His mathematical papers are chiefly concerned with geometry. He introduced homogeneous coordinates into analytic geometry and dealt with geometric transformations, in particular projective transformations. He was a pioneer in topology ; in a memoir discovered after his death he discussed the properties of one-sided surfaces, including the famous Möbius strip.